“Prototype” (2006)

The work documented in the installation explained the first stages of research and prototyping I had done at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in addition to works and writings that are currently in-progress. In regards to bioArt and the technologies used, the installation served to explain lab methods as new tools for the emerging art field.

After spending countless hours staring down my microscopes, I wanted to bring the beauty of the miniscule to larger proportions. In the laboratory, I observe the curious growing patterns of muscle cells as they adapt to man-made cellular scaffoldings in vitro (outside the body). In the gallery’s back section was a stylized rendition of muscle cells and proteins in a growth cascade that engulfs the scaffold fibers. As in proliferate cell activity, notice the repeating patterns of cell branches reaching out to adhere to its next contact point or round protein globules that regulate cell metabolism or communicate with other cells. This sculpture represents the third day of muscle cell growth in vitro as they try to organize within a new environment.