This series of iPad drawings form the start of a project in collaboration with microbiologists at Sheffield Hallam University, focussing on research into how bacterial colonies from a sample streak plate are investigated and analysed against a backdrop of antibiotic resistance.
The digital drawings start to explore a new visual vocabulary; the microscopic patterns and rhythms created by these living organisms, the highly complex and varied forms that these bacteria present, and the means of recording these changing and growing structures.
The drawings have a repetitive method of production, verging on the mundane, mesmeric and meditative; akin to some of processes used to produce these plates in the laboratory. Time is an integral element of all the work; the multi-layered and systematic methods, bacterial growth, processing of materials; all of which are durational and occurring at different speeds. Time-lapse videos showing how the drawings are made attempt to convey some of these qualities.
The interplay and commonalities between art and science are of great interest; the aim to record what is observed and experienced, mystery, investigation, communication of new ideas, and challenging accepted wisdom. The drawings reference the precise and methodical laboratory processes, juxtaposed with the unpredictable and sometimes surprising and serendipitous results.
