Sensory, Spirit & Spiral …A Tale from BioArt: In8macy with Nature
By Pakpoom Subsoontorn, Ph.D.My knees were curled to my chest as I swam face down. I used my two arms to propel the water ahead and pull it in like a frog's breaststroke. I was surprised by how difficult it was to go through the water without moving my legs. My vision is hazy because of the condensa>on on my goggles. The waves from eleven other par>cipants in the pool made it more challenging to balance and keep a straight course.
If we want to genuinely appreciate something, we need to immerse ourselves in it, said Tomoki Matsumura, a former compe>>ve swimmer, ar>st and water flea (Daphnia) researcher from Japan. A 2016 Ig Nobel Prize laureate known as "a goat man" inspired Matsumura's interest in designing the Daphnia swimming style. Daphnia has a small, plump body and only uses its front limbs to swim when in the water. This animal with compound eyes only sees with fuzzy vision. By the laws of small-scale physics, Daphnia swimming through water would feel like swimming in a viscous jam.
AQer his lecture, Matsumura invited us to jump into the pool … and become Daphnia!
Matsumura, a swimmer/ar>st/researcher, who tries to become Daphnia
Matsumura’s workshop was part of “BioArt: In+macy with Nature” mee>ng at Naresuan University in Phitsanulok, Thailand, last month. The event was co-hosted by Henry Tan from FREAK lab and Bangkok Interna>onal Performing Arts Mee>ng (BIPAM). This peculiar mee>ng started with a ques>on of how art and science, especially biology, could bring us closer to nature. Here, we had students, swimmer, pianist, gene>c engineer, tea master, dancer, plant breeder, fes>val organizer, flavor researcher, chef, programmer, and many other random experts from interna>onal community gathering for a fiveday art and science camp, where they showcased their work and engaged in lengthy discussions.
This mel>ng pot of art and scien>fic specialists taught me about Sensory, Spirit and Spiral.
“Sensory” are windows connec>ng our inner self to the outside world. Tools from both science and art enable us to create and expand the boundaries of our sensory experience. Thus, our BioArt workshop's format was based on the five senses. We spent one day learning about colors and forms we could see with our eyes, the next day learning about smells, the next day learning about tastes, and the last day learning about sounds and touches.
For science, sensory is nothing but informa>on transferred via pulses of energy or molecules in maber.
Color is specific wavelength of lights reflected from molecules to re>na. Smell and taste are reac>ons between molecules and nerve ending in our nose and on our tongue. Sound and touch are merely mechanical energy vibra>ng to our inner ears skin. Science of maber and energy allow us to break down, reassembly and create new experiences via these five senses.
Color is a par>cular wavelength of light reflected from molecules and detected by the re>na. Our senses of smell and taste are the result of chemical interac>ons involving nerve endings in our nose and tongue. Sound and touch are only mechanical energy vibra>ng in our inner ears and on our skin. Science of maber and energy allows us to break down, reassembly and create new experiences via these five senses.
“Praong Dum (Black Prince)” rice variety with dark purple leaves, melanin dye of mushroom and colorful bacterial colonies were created by founda>onal knowledge about genes and molecular biology of jelly fish, sea anemone, fungus and plants. Every taste and flavor of weed tea, herbal inhaler, palm wine and alien species menu could be chemically analyzed, reproduced and modified. Every natural sound could be re-synthesized and re-mixed with physics of waves.
Science and art of sensory at BioArt: In>macy with Nature
presented lives of silk worms that lose cocoon protec>on, and Tomoya Ishibashi who had ‘liberated’ gold fish by selec>ve breeding them back to natural form.
Taiwanese ar>st pair "Weed day" recounted similar tales about the land's soul and weeds, urging us to close our eyes, touch, smell, and listen to their leaves and stems in silence. A Singaporean ar>st, Chu Hao Pei, inves>gated the stories of rice grains, flavors and fragrances of rice, and the history of beliefs, communi>es, poli>cs, and cultures on rice packaging that we oQen overlook.
Padung Jumpan / Khetsin Pleum Chuchan / Worakamon Kim Ongvanich, the three Thai ar>sts, talked about “Kwan”, tutelary deity in ancient Thai belief similar to Japanese “Kami.” We have Thai words for different “Kwan” protec>ng homes (“Kwan Ban”), ci>es (“Kwan Muang”), rice paddies (“Kwan Kaow”), elephants (“Kwan Chang”), etc. Our body also has up to 32 Kwans. If we suffer from serious accident or mental trauma, we might lose Kwan from our body (“Sia Kwan”) and need to perform a ritual to call it back (“Reiyk Kwan”). It was Padung from Pichet Klunchun dance company who taught us how to feel and follow the "Kwan" in our bodies. For a lible while, we let go of our physical bodies and entrusted them to the guidance of the spirits within.
As scien>sts, we may be tempted to discount the existence of such spirits as mere folklore. However, as inventors, we could ques>on, "How could we engineer such spirits?" If "spirits" are simply nonhuman en>>es capable of feeling, remembering, thinking, responding, and communica>ng with us, then ar>ficial intelligence (AI) may be able to generate "spirit".
Wave Pongruengkiat, a Chiangmai-based Thai ar>st and engineer, spoke to us about "genera>ve art," which he defined as work created not by ar>sts directly but rather by computer algorithms. Ar>sts are limited to programming algorithms and providing 'raw data,' such as
numbers, phrases, sounds, or original images. Wave brought up DallE, an ar>ficial intelligence (AI) capable of crea>ng realis>c visuals from text descrip>ons. As part of his presenta>on, Wave introduced "Medium," his algorithm for transforming air pollu>on and natural sounds into 3D face masks that could autonomously morph into different shapes in response to input data. Naturally occurring phenomena formerly devoid of personality, expression, or verbal communica>on now possess "spirits" thanks to ar>ficial intelligence.
MIT Media Lab graduate student Pat Pataranutaporn discussed his work under the topic "Machine / Monster / Magic" during his session. Integra>ng machines and humans more seamlessly could augment our bodies' capacity to sense and respond. From a wearable diagnosis lab to a wearable drug and hormone factory, Pat’s cyborg could give advice or take ac>ons to protect the wearer like a guardian spirit in the ancient belief. Addi>onally, Pat spoke about the possibility of u>lizing AI to simulate talks with persons who have passed away, or with ourselves in the past, present, or future or in a parallel universe. It was impossible to tell the difference between these incredible inven>ons and magic.
How ar>sts saw “Spirits”
credit: Hideo Iwasaki: aPrayer: memorial service for microorganisms and ar>ficial cells and lives, Hanna Saito: Non-re>na Kinematograph, Akira Fujioka: Worms, Tomoya Ishibashi: Goldfish Libera>on Movement, WeedDay: plant touching workshop, Chu Hao Pei: rice bag art, Padung Chumpan: “Kwan”, Wave Pongruengkiat: Medium: Cyber-animism mask for posthuman democracy, Pat Pataranutaporn: Deep Truth AI
"What is DNA, exactly? All I can think of is that spiral thing inside our bodies." One evening, Padung came up to me and posed a ques>on. Padung, a Thai dancer who has spent much of his life impersona>ng Hanuman on stage, may have had his first introduc>on to molecular biology in this BioArt workshop. "DNA" is one of the scien>fic concepts that the general public frequently uses without fully understanding what it is, how it looks, or what it can do.
DNA isn't some esoteric idea, futuris>c inven>on, or sacred substance; it's just another regular substance that happens to play cri>cal roles in living things. We can now "play" with DNA in the same way we can with other materials like dough, paper, wood, iron, and
so on, thanks to recent advancements in modern biotechnology. During our workshop, DNA was retrieved using a "Skudkeng" kit, detected with "CRISPR diagnosis kits," and injected into cells to alter their colour. We also discussed how DNA can be used to create memorials for the dead (like in the "Biopresence" project) or store melody in space missions (as in MESSE project). All above could be done within a few days, a couple hundred-dollar budget and highschool level biology.
If our en>re body (or the body of an animal or a plant) were a building, the rooms in that building would be referred to as 'cells.' Each room would have a bunch of furnishings dubbed ‘organelle’. Wood, concrete, plas>c, cloth, paper, steel, and many more materials are used to construct both the rooms and the furnishings. These materials would be equivalent to ‘biomolecules’ such as protein, carbohydrate, fat, etc. in living cells” I explained with an analogy.
Each room would also have a pile of books about the blueprint as well as protocols for construc>ng and using the room. This pile of books has been dubbed the "genome." Materials, like paper and ink, that make up these books are equivalent to ‘DNA’. The content in these books would be ‘gene>c informa>on’ while ‘gene’ corresponds to a single complete sentence.
“So ‘gene>c informa>on’ defines who we truly are?” Padung asked
“But not en>rely. We are a combina>on of our gene>cs and our environment. Even iden>cal twins could have different appearance and personali>es if they were raised up differently. If life was a stageplay, gene>cs would be like a script. The actual quality of the play also depends on available wardrobe, stage arrangement, skill of actors/actresses, etc.” I replied “however if we can directly modify the script, we will have far greater influence over the whole show. This is what gene>c engineers are working on”
“play” with DNA at the BioArt workshop
What so special about this BioArt workshop was that nearly all our par>cipants, almost thirty of us, stayed together in the university dormitory. 'Open session' was held every night from around 8 p.m. to well past midnight for anyone who had ques>ons or comments on what we did in the workshop. For the span of the week, my >ny dorm room welcomed dozens of par>cipants from various backgrounds for late-night nerdy conversa>ons like these.
As we were talking about DNA and gene, “Pleum”, a music composer sinng nearby men>oned the concept of “meme” from Richard Dawkins’ “The Selfish Gene”. Like a "gene," a "meme" is a fragment of informa>on that can be replicated, mutated, evolved, or ex>nct. An idea, ac>on, belief, style, or culture could all be considered memes. When a strong meme becomes "viral," it has the poten>al to spread across the whole human race and last for centuries or perhaps millennia. Weak memes, on the other hand, would only sprout short, infect only handful of individuals and be swiQly forgoben.
Credit: Dr. Tanapat Pangeson: DNA extrac>on kit, Asso. Prof. Dr. Kinsak Buddhachat and Asst. Prof. Dr. Thawatchai Benz Chaijarasphong: CRISPR diagnosis, Dr. Pakpoom Subsoontorn: DNA delivery to cells, Georg Tremmel: Biopresence and Pocket PCR, MESSE team: DNA design package for space missionFor ar>sts, en>>es that can be passed down from genera>on to genera>on, whether through genes or memes, embody our deep desire for eternity. The existence of something that could forever persist aQer the end of life resonates with the concept of ‘spirit’ we discussed earlier.
Most laypeople cannot visualize how protein, carbohydrate, fat, vitamin, RNA, etc. look like but most of us probably can think for DNA and its iconic “spiral” structure.
Due to coincidence or perhaps mass hysteria, many of us started to perceive “spiral” here and there throughout the BioArt workshop. Someone teased that we were about to enter the fic>>ous world of Junji Ito's Uzumaki, a famous manga horror about a city plagued by a supernatural curse involving “spirals”.
“Spiral” signifies hypno>zing magic, reincarna>on and eerie mysteries. We see spiral in the eyes of confused/dizzy emoji, in a ques>on mark, in a whirlpool and a tornado gobbling everything away.
Weed Day, the Taiwanese duo ar>sts, collected spiral snail shells around our campus for their inhaler formula and narrated stories of spirals in “unalome”, a Buddhist/Hinduist metaphor of journey through life toward enlightenment and freedom. Padung, the Thai ar>st, also men>oned a spiral of our hair whorl where our highest “Kwan” resides.
Hideo, the head of metaPhorest Japan, played with spiral in the >me dimension. Cyanobacteria's biological clock mechanism was first iden>fied by his team more than two decades ago. To this day, his ar>s>c and scien>fic misions s>ll center around the concept of cycle and rhythm.
“Rhythm is the halfway point between desolate death and fran>c turmoil. In darkness and silence, rhythmic sounds of trickling water, a >cking clock or regular breath would thrill you about something alive. In a noisy and showy world, these same rhythmic sounds would calm you down” Hideo elaborated on his obsession with the art and science of rhythm. “Rhythm links things together. Rhythm connects hundreds of musicians into an orchestra. Rhythm synchronizes biological clocks, made of genes and enzymes, at a subcellular scale to the rota>on of earth and moon on a planetary scale.”
Padung and Pleum responded to Hideo’s concept with their workshop on the forth evening of BioArt. Tens of par>cipants who had been moving independently by following their inner "Kwan" found themselves suddenly synced. Padung’s new choreographic performance, paced by a heavy rhythm of Pleum’s breath on melodica, lulled us to silence while maintaining profound tension and unsebling suspense. Hideo was right about mysterious power of spiral, cycle and rhythm.
Spiral in space and >me at the BioArt workshop
Credit DNA helix, Weed Day: Unalome, Padung Jumpan: stories of Kwan, Hiedo Iwasaki: biological clock and cyanobacteria, Padung Jumpan and Khetsin Chuchan: choreographic performance of Kwan
I sat s>ll, keeping my knees pressed against my chest. The thousand square meters room was absolutely dark except for blinking orange screen of cell phone in front of me reflec>ng on the ceiling. Other par>cipants sat quietly around the room. Slowly making his way around the room was Singaporean ar>st and art therapist, Din Chan. One of his hands held a tongue drum. Electric bulb hung on his shoulder flickering with the beat from the drum. The hypno>zing sound of drum in silence imparted holiness to the ritual. As BioArt came to a close, the final workshop, "Prayer," prompted us to reflect on the past five days of harrowing and bizarre learning experiences.
“The sole subs>tute for an experience which we have not ourselves lived through is art.” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said during his speech for Nobel Prize in Literature, over half a century ago.
Our human life is a blink of an eye compared to the age of the universe. Our “sensory” experience is just a >ny part of the en>re reality. Science widens the boundaries of our sensory, offers tools for synthesizing color, taste, smell, sound, etc., and opens our access to deep past and far future. All of these things become art in the form of pain>ng, sculpture, dance, cuisine, and so on, expanding the scope of what we can experience in our brief life>me.
Science reminds us that humans are not the center of the universe but rather a >ny cog in mother nature’s magnificent machine. Art teaches us to see things from a different viewpoint and to feel empathy for the "spirit" in the world around us. Through art, we absorbed experience we had never lived of Daphnia, slime mold, silk worm and gold fish by Metaphorest, experience of leaves, stems and flowers by Weed Day, experience of Kwan by Padung and experience of synthe>c intelligence by Wave and Pat.
Both science and art tells stories of shared experience across the barriers of space and >me. The BioArt workshop's recurring no>on of "spiral" represents DNA, the universal language of heredity,
succession, and evolu>on, as well as cycles and rhythms that connect everything together.
To Sensory, Spirit & Spiral, the three lessons from “BioArt” that could help us be in>mate with nature again.