–Per Hüttner and Robert Oostenveld at Q, Copenhagen, February 26, 2025
In the performance we allow microbes to “create” their own music and images. We film their activity under a microscope. We then use the real time images to measure how the microbes move and then turn the data into control signals that influence sound and moving images. For this purpose, we have devised specially designed software, using the EEGsynth, that measures the microbes’ activity. This approach however, gives us no indication what to present the work aesthetically.
The performance is therefore divided into three parts:
1. Autism (with film clips primarily from Fernand Deligny)
2. The microbes (both real time images from the microscope and pre-recorded images)
3. The dark future (images of humans in ritualistic contexts)
The sonic landscape in the performance is taken from naturally occurring sounds: recordings of microbes and the gut. They are, in turn, manipulated by the microbes in real time. The first and the last sonic landscapes are noisy and broken up. While the second is more harmonic and rhythmic.
The performance was born out of the project Governing Bodies where artists and researchers investigated the human microbiome (the microbes that we live in symbiosis with) to discover how contemporary scientific knowledge about microbes can become a part of creative artistic work. The project was initiated based on research carried out by MaiBritt Giacobini. She, and her team, focused on eating patterns of children with autism and how changing them could improve the childrens’ quality of life. Using the pictures from Deligny is a way to pay homage to the project’s genesis.
During the performance, Per Huttner is responsible for the sound and image and Robert Oostenveld focuses on the microbes, microscope and technology.
This version of Microbes’ Agency was specially developed for: Mindbody: a three-day festival (February 24-26, 2025) on the body’s knowledge at Q (Peder Skrams Gade 2, 1050 Copenhagen, DK).
The event was co-organised by The Palliative Turn & Vision Forum and described as follows: How does bodily knowledge play into art-making and the creative process? With equal emphasis on experience and knowledge, the objective of this program is to allow the participating scientists, health workers and artists to gain a deeper, transdisciplinary understanding of what is often called the Bodymind.
The project is supported by Nordic Culture Fund and Helge Ax:son Johnsons stiftelse. (Photos by Olav Westphalen and Carima Neusser.)