© maurizio montalti 2008-2012
System Synthetics
ABOUT THE COLLABORATION:
System Synthetics is the last project developed by Officina Corpuscoli (Maurizio Montalti), made possible thanks to an interdisciplinary collaboration with the Kluyver Centre for Industrial Fermentation, specifically with prof. Han Wosten and his team at the Utrecht University (microbiology).
The development of 'System Synthetics' has been possible thanks to the “Designers & Artists 4 Genomics Award”.
ABOUT THE DA4GA:
The DA4GA highlights and explores the exciting and novel possibilities between design, artistic practice and Life Sciences. DA4GA aims to stimulate emerging designers and artists to delve into the world of bio-art, and produce new work together with the Netherlands most prestigious Genomics Centres. The Designers & Artists 4 Genomics Award is the first Dutch competition in which art, design and life sciences are brought together. The goal of DA4GA is to stimulate Bio Art and to make the diversity of Genomics more visible. Bio Art is art in which living material and organisms are used as a medium. Genomics is the research into the genes of people, animals, plants and micro-organisms.
DA4GA is an initiative by the “Netherlands Genomics Initiative” (NGI) and “Waag Society”, in collaboration with the generous support of the “Center for Society and Genomics” (CSG) and presented at “NCB Naturalis”.
ABOUT SYSTEM SYNTHETICS:
BACKGROUND
System Synthetics’ comes as an innovative approach to one major issue within human society, being the harmful consequences of man-made synthetic materials, plastics, for human health and functioning of ecosystems.
These disposable and almost eternal materials surround us and are spread in the environment, ending up entering the food chain and affecting the entire ecosystem, until they reach us and all living organisms with lots of critical consequences.
For this reason the focus of System Synthetics lies in the establishment of a form of collaboration with fungi, as these organisms are in nature directly responsible for performing cycles of decomposition and transformation of organic and inorganic substrates.
THE ‘DEPENDENT’ ORGANISMS
Unlike in a lab, where Fungi are generally grown in a pure culture, in nature they grow together with other microbes. In many cases these microbes compete with each other, but also create beneficial symbiotic relationships; in fact, many microbes can only survive in the presence of another microbe: they are co-dependent.
The possibility of encouraging a new symbiosis between fungal organisms to face the dangerous results of the so-called ‘human development’, together with the potential of obtaining useful and beneficial outcomes, are the key-points of System Synthetics.
That’s why I selected two specific organisms: on a side i was very much intrigued in the potential of a filamentous fungus (Phanerochaete chrysosporium), which has been found capable of degrading plastic materials, by literally feeding on them,
On the other side, another model organism, one of the main industrial cell factories, grabbed my attention, a yeast, (Saccharomyces cerevisiae); its capacity to produce alcohol is nowadays being exploited for the production of bioethanol as an energy source.
THE SYNTHETIC SYMBIOSIS
The goal of the project has been (and will keep on being), to improve the performance of these organisms by combining their capacities, so the property to degrade plastic and waste, with the
one of producing alcohol and therefore bioethanol: this to be achieved by designing a new life form, by creating an intimate endo-symbiotic relationship between the two selected organisms.The inspiration has come, in fact, from the endosymbiotic theory, a process where one microbe takes over another microbe and they get fused together, by sharing their nucleus. According to this theory, this is the way eukaryotes, us humans included, originated and evolved in million of years; so, the objective has been to try and create a man made symbiosis in the 21st century and within a short time.
EXPERIMENTING IN THE LAB
Working in the lab has been the fundamental process for trying and define the best conditions under which the two fungal organisms can co-exist. Different experiments were conducted, growing the two fungal species in a variety of media, both liquid and solid, and using different inocula densities and eventually comparing the biomass’ production of the mixed and of the single cultures. It has been particularly fascinating to dive into the micro-universe for understanding the experiment’s results. In this way the ideal conditions for the start of a peaceful co-exhistence have been defined.
Furthermore, in order to enable easy visualization in the co-culture, the partners were labeled with fluorescent proteins (red and cyan).
The process of working in the lab has been extremely helpful to directly understand the nature of the interaction between the two fungi and recognize the fact that the aim of creating a man-made endo-symbiosis is rather ambitious, particularly in such a short time.; such scientific research is very complex and requires lots of work, time and patience.
THE INSTALLATION
For these reasons, System Synthetics develops from this highly ambitious idea and naturally aims to visualize the possibilities through a design artwork, which consists of models, a process-film, and a tailor-made transparent bio-reactor apparatus, where the results of the experiments have been integrated.
Within this context, ‘System Synthetics’ aims to open up new perspectives and thoughts, trying to inspire and involve the public into a discussion about the potential benefits and the further consequences, which could derive from a man-made evolution of life
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