Category Archives: Creative Development

Design prep

July 19, 2021 kratz2021 Leave a comment

I purchased ten borosilicate glass Petri dishes last week in each size [1500mm and 900mm]. This will enable me to do the engraving and materials tests while I wait for ethics approval.

I am going to start with some simple designs that connect to motifs from my previous practice and signal notions of ongoing development and ‘rippling outwards’. Screenshot of vector ripple design

Screenshot of vector ‘ripple’ design created in Adobe Illustrator.

This design was originally created for The Contamination of Alice #9 as part of the group show Ghost Biologies at Contemporary Art Tasmania in 2016. I feel that a similar pattern could work quite well engraved on the base of the Petri dishes. However, I will need to include some etched ‘shaded’ areas to see if scarring the surface helps with cell adhesion.

To create the new designs, I will try to work directly in Rhino – the software platform used for the laser cutter. Hopefully, this will enable me to create designs will fewer nodes to reduce clean up time and double lines.

Creative Development, Project

Material supplies: Glass Petri Dishes

July 15, 2021 kratz2021 Leave a comment

My primary lab contact is currently on leave so I am using the time to identify materials for experimentation. I am keen to grow and stain my cells on diverse materials (glass, porous and non-porous scaffolds etc). An easy start is to use glass Petri dishes with different coatings to encourage cell adherence. The use of coatings may also enable me to encourage cells to grow in particular patterns.

I’ve done a bit of searching via Researchgate and it seems that common surface coatings to encourage cell attachment to glass include:

Hyaluronic acid
Poly-D-Lysine – my current choice
Fetal Calf Serum
Bovine serum albumin
Gelatin
Fibronectin
Laminin
Collagen

I will ask for advice at the next lab meeting.

There were also suggestions to etch the glass surface with concentrated nitric acid and then wash and autoclave. At the UTAS School of Creative Arts and Media, we are fortunate to have access to a glass cutter and laser engraver. So instead of using acid, I will use the laser to score a design into the base of a large 150mm Petri dish.

Glass Petri Dish

Glass Petri dish by Lilly M via Wikimedia

Luckily Petri dishes are easy to purchase online. I just need to make sure the dishes are suitable for autoclave sterilisation (e.g. borosilicate glass rather than soda lime glass).

Creative Development

Chameleon Pigments

July 13, 2021 kratz2021 Leave a comment

While I plan to spend quite a bit of time in the lab, the Synapse residency is also giving me space to experiment with new creative materials that complement the focus of the research. In particular, I plan on moving forward with chameleon pigment experiments – I have been obsessed with them since the start of the year.

Chameleon pigments are essentially powered colours that have an iridescent quality reminiscent of peacock feathers and beetle wings.

Jewel Beetle

Example of iridescent Jewel Beetle, Jarrahdale State Forest, Western Australia, November 2011 by John Tann via Wikimedia Commons.

What I particularly like about chameleon pigments is that they shift colour depending on the viewing angle. Not only can they shift between two colours (blue-green), some pigments allow for quite a large spectrum shift (blue-violet-red-orange).

My initial interest started with nail polish (even though I never wear it) as there are a fantastic range of chameleon and special effects options available on EBay and other outlets.

Screenshot E-Bay Search

Screenshot of Ebay search for chameleon nail polish July 2021.

While nail polish was a good start, the small volumes are unsuitable for larger projects. Therefore, my search took me to find larger volume options. I was delighted to discover that chameleon pigments are quite common in craft project and there are a number of retailers in Australia and overseas that produce chameleon and metal mica pigments for a wide range of applications. The price of these products is variable, so I have been testing small quantities of powder from a range of companies including Solar Color Dust and A1 Pigments.

Screenshot of Chrome Dust Pigments

Screenshot of different chrome dust pigments available at SolarColorDust.com

With the Synapse grant, I plan to expand these initial experiments to include automotive products, as chameleon pigments are also available as for custom car painting and detailing in powder, paint and spray form. Perhaps they will even work to highlight fixed cells on glass.

Chameleon Car Paint

A car with chameleon pigment paint finish taken in 2019 by W Fan (cropped image with license plate number removed) via Wikimedia Commons.

Creative Development

Upcoming workshop with Francesca Ferrando

July 1, 2021 kratz2021 Leave a comment

For anyone interested, Francesca Ferrando, a leading scholar in Philosophical Posthumanism will be running a free online workshop.

Posthuman Screenshot

Screenshot from What does Posthumanism mean? by Francesca Ferrando available on Youtube.

Francesca Ferrando: The Art of Posthuman Existence – Interactive Workshop

Meeting 1: Saturday, July 3rd, 9am-11am (PST)
Meeting 2: Saturday, July 10th, 9am-11am (PST)
Meeting 3: Saturday, July 17th, 9am-11am (PST)

Unfortunately, the time conversion for AEST at +17 makes it rather intense Sunday 3am session. Regardless, I think I will try to do it!

Details available via Foreign Objekt

Creative Development, Laboratory, Project

Post-holiday update

January 13, 2021 kratz2021 Leave a comment

I have returned from the festive season break and started back in the lab.

Let’s start with the good news! There is no visible infection in any of the vessels including cut glass dishes and vials. My flasks are doing OK and there are cells actively growing (despite evidence of cell death indicated by cell debris).

Now for the bad news…

There has been mass death. Despite the slow growth rates of my cells, 3 weeks is just too long to leave cells starving and without ongoing maintenance. That said, there is evidence (in cell debris) that a good number of cells did grow in the vessels during my absence. This shows that the overall plan should work.

The plan for today is: