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Designer Makes a Font Out of Bacteria

by Matthew Zuras on October 30, 2009 at 04:23 PM


Dutch designer Jelte van Abbema recently won the €10,000 (about $14,000) Rado Prize at the Dutch Design Awards for, among other work, his typography project Symbiosis. Van Abbema used living bacteria to form lettering by stamping the critters onto paper with letterpress type, and then set them in a home-made incubator. Their metastasis and ultimate demise created typographic forms that changed shape and color over time -- making posters, or letters, or what have you, that are in a constant state of flux.

Early 20th-century Surrealists like Joan Miró and more recent artists like Louise Bourgeois have used biomorphism -- the use of organic, biological shapes -- in their work. And while bio-art has shown an increasing presence in museum and gallery shows, we think this may be the first example of living typography.

When we as a civilization get to the point where we make bird flu quips and H1N1 jack-o-lanterns, biological experimentation in the arts shouldn't come as a surprise. We're not really worried about artists accidentally releasing the Rage virus or anything, but it's understandable that some might be unnerved by the prospect of literally infectious design. The bigger question is, when is someone going to reproduce 'Portrait of Pope Innocent X' out of ebola? Now that'd be art. [From: Dezeen, via FastCompany]

Tags: bacteria, bioarts, top, typography, weird

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