Mick Lorusso is an interdisciplinary artist focused on transformations of energy from the nano to the geologic scale, with an emphasis on living systems. He is currently a researcher and instructor at the UCLA Art|Sci Center.
Joel Ong is Assistant Professor in Computational Arts at York University. His research explores emergent ways of interfacing with the natural elements through the lens of digital and interactive technologies. He is an alumni of SymbioticA and is also an artist with the UCLA ArtSci Collective.
MICROBIAL WITNESS/ATLAS
Two cabinets at the entrance of Gerstein Library act as windows into the microbial world, where dirt samples from the region incubate and breed curated microbiomes. Overlayed with topographical representations of geologic features, the installation defines the site as an interconnected ecology, extending to sites on the human body that are known to host similar microbial populations. Interactive elements perturb the dust samples, further revealing narratives and metaphors of environmental disruptions at a global scale, providing the context for a uniquely microbial perspective of the world. The installation also features historical books from the library, diagrams and observational equipment. The pages of this microbial atlas open before us, revealing microbes as witness to life on the other side of the looking glass.