Microbial Topographies

Microbial Topographies

"Microbial Topographies" maps the growth patterns of microbial cultures. Bacterial colonies and engineered pigment-producing organisms are plotted onto specialized surfaces that read as landscape, geology, and topography.

Each piece begins as an architected living system: cultures plotted, grown, and documented over days or weeks, their color shifts and branching structures functioning as both process and image. Liquid handling robots — precision instruments built for lab automation — are utilized to plot cultures in a human-designed formation. These large 40" x 40" topographies sit alongside images of the actual size Petri dish paintings.

The occasional airborne spores, stray bacteria, and other uninvited microorganisms find their way into the cultures, introducing contamination that the piece absorbs rather than resists. These unplanned microorganisms deposit their colonies, mapping new terrain across the designed system. The works can also occasionally favor close ups of human anatomy; teeth, hair and hair follicles, and so on. Shown under different light sources, the forms reveal hidden anomalies.

Papaver Robotum 1 -8 (E.coli), 2026. Medium: Giclee print, photo rag; Dimensions: 6” x 6”. Edition of 5 + 1 Artist Proof

Papaver Robotum / Microbial Topographies process video, 2026
Stop-motion video of incubation: genetically modified microbes, agar, Petri dish; Robot painting with liquid culture
Dimensions: 1920 x 1080 pixels. Codec: H.264. Color Profile: HD, RGB. Duration: 03:31