Wang Ya
→ Growing Colors 2024-2025
→ Dictyostelium 2024-2025
→ Cell-Cell 2023-2024
→ Inner Kinship 2022
→ Ants 2021
Acknowledgements
Contact
→ Growing Colors 2024-2025
→ Dictyostelium 2024-2025
→ Cell-Cell 2023-2024
→ Inner Kinship 2022
→ Ants 2021
Acknowledgements
Contact
Introduction
The Visual Context Presented here are thirteen sequences captured via laser confocal microscopy. They focus on pairs of Dictyostelium cells, their membranes illuminated by Red Fluorescent Protein (RFP). In these brief moments, we observe their amoeboid movements as they navigate the void—sometimes drifting apart, other times engaging in complex, tactile interactions. These contacts might hint at undiscovered mechanisms of cell signaling, or they might simply be the mundane, accidental brushes of daily life.
From a standard biological perspective, these cells are defined by their uniformity. They are asexual clones, genetically identical descendants of a single parent, cultivated in the millions. In the laboratory, they are often reduced to "consumables"—industrialized tools for data production. Millions are discarded daily during routine maintenance, a loss that registers as nothing more than biological waste. In the pursuit of statistical significance, the specific history of a single cell is rendered irrelevant.
I confess that executing this experiment brought a certain hesitation.
I am acutely aware that scientific resources are finite. The instruments I use are powered by public funding and the labor of taxpayers; they are intended for hypothesis-driven rigor, not aimless gazing. From a utilitarian standpoint, occupying a confocal microscope to watch two cells simply "exist" feels like a transgression—a misuse of efficiency.
Yet, history reminds us that unexpected discoveries often stem from "useless" observations that defied the logic of their time.
In this context, perhaps the artist’s role is to offer a specific kind of disruption. Not to cause material damage, but to invite a conceptual loosening. It is a quiet attempt to explore whether, by briefly suspending the mandate for efficiency, we might loosen the tight grip of convention—revealing those subtle cracks where new questions can breathe and innovation might take root.
Screening at the Library Media Room