Geozilla

Life Enlightened

Bioluminescence is the ability for an organism to create light by a physiological, chemical reaction. The ability to glow has evolved many times and is widespread throughout the animal and bacterial kingdoms. In the deep sea those animals that do not have the ability to glow on their own will form partnerships with microbiota that can. Nearly 90% of abyssal creatures are bioluminescent.

Even on land many animals have harnessed the power of light - insects, beetles, worms. Some glow to attract mates, others to warn predators or capture prey, still others to mimic another more dangerous luminescent creature.

Outside the animal kingdom fungus have also evolved the capacity to luminesce. Insects are attracted to the glowing caps and then disperse spores from mushroom to mushroom as they investigate the source of light.

Imitating nature, artists have attempted to capture the beauty of bioluminescent creatures. Yayoi Kusama used tiny lights, mirrors, and pools of water in an installation at the Whitney to recreate the mating displays of the golden fireflies that swarm the forests of Japan.

Others have used the organisms themselves as part of the piece. Using petri dishes to “paint” patterns, Angela Bowlds uses bioluminescent bacteria to create large-scale ephemeral installations.

Following on this style geneticist Hunter Cole assembles intimate collections of glowing dishes as drawings. Both women describe the microbiota as their “collaborators” in these works.

On a grander scale, Octave Augustin Marie Perrault constructed a collection of bioluminescent billboards on the shores of the Galapagos Islands. This piece was intended to be viewed from out at sea.

Science has now followed on art and nature. Bioengineers at UCSD assemble colonies of bioluminescent bacteria into microfluidic chips inhabited by thousands of fluorescent E. coli. Each chip contains thousands of individual organisms

These organisms have been manipulated to synchronize their luminescence in response to chemical triggers. In this way the chips are assembled into actual billboards containing thousands of these “biopixels”.

The goal now is to incorporate these glowing communities into architecture and urban design. Imagine a streetlight that needs no electricity since it is powered by bacteria or the stock tickers and billboards of Times Square illuminated only by thousands of organisms…