Living Ideas
The microbiome of ideas
Research, 400 polymer clay sculptures during the Artist in Labs Residency, Zurich Switzerland, 2017
During his residency at Artists in Labs at the Department of Environmental Microbiology, Eawag in Zurich, Shono, questioned the origins and originality of ideas by imagining them as a microbial life that has begun manifesting itself across the research campus.
The work is the outcome of several scientific and creative observations along with the residency’s research team. By visualizing this organism as a mind map of ideas and presenting this structure as a living and complex idea microbiome, researchers were invited to discuss their work, and were asked “how original do you think are your ideas?” and “how would they behave if they were a living organism?”
These questions and discussions influenced the evolution and design of the work. How do ideas connect and grow? How do ideas stick and flourish while others remain isolated and die? What motivates ideas to spread and survive? What is an original idea and can it truly exist in isolation from the greater idea network? Researchers were invited to observe and reflect on their own work through this installation.
