‘A feeling for the micro-organism’ with Ross Dalziel

Join artist Ross Dalziel for two online workshops inspired by Evelyn Fox Keller’s biography of geneticist Barbara McClintock - A Feeling For The Organism - and the intimate care for living things - human and non-human - required of all workers in the life sciences.  This project aims to explore the value of everyday biomedical research and practice - a 21st century domestic science that considers everyone’s labour - particularly in bio-medicine, health and well-being - while reflecting on our passions and the impact of looking after organisms other than ourselves.

In these two workshops you will:
Play with silicon chips and the surfaces of the technoscientific materials we use everyday
Play with stretchy see-through hands on food safe silicon polymers!
Model Organisms, Biology’s non-human collaborators!
Use a Leeuwenhoek style DIY origami Microscope by Foldscope
Meet Euglena gracilis algae, critters that move like animals but eat like plants
Make microscopic moulds from everyday technology and capture images with your smartphone, computer and the naked eye

With collaborators at Domestic Science the kit includes safe simple accessible micro-moulding materials to interact with the microscopic material surfaces of our everyday modern world - the surfaces of a microchip, an old vinyl record, the texture of a phone case - with living photosynthetic algae.

We use a standard Foldscope kit fresh from engineer Manu Prakash’s Foldscope Shop with extra materials to help people explore the world of DIY microfluidics.

This is a CREATE.CONNECT.UNWIND+ project delivered in partnership with MFT Employee Health and Wellbeing Service + Lime

The project is supported and funded by MFT Charity.