OUR MISSION


Living Records is a speculative project addressing gaps in history stored through technology, memory, or legacy. Through our research in the lab, we contend with what is remembered, and what is forgotten. What echoes throughout history, such as the words of a President inspiring us to go to the moon, and what slips away, like the efforts of the underrepresented people who made that journey possible. 

We propose a series of biologically fabricated records that highlight the impermanence of data technology and center histories that are forgotten or actively erased: a bacterial cellulose cassette tape, a biofabricated core rope memory circuit, and an oral history preserved through its audience. Living Records help us understand the unspoken labour that promotes human progress as well as the efforts that we, as fellow organisms on earth, must take to resist being forgotten. 

As our technology decays, our values and stories don’t have to. Living Records acknowledges how human progress is directed by our stories and those who write them. Bringing forth the question: What will you do to hold these records?



Our Team
Bibliography/Dedications

01 BIOFABRICATED MAGNETIC CASSETTE TAPE

The tape in the cassette is bacterial cellulose we have given hard magnetic properties. Recording iconic excerpts from John F. Kennedy’s speech at Rice University about the Apollo 11 mission, we contend with audio as a method for remembering.
 
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02 BIOFABRICATED CORE ROPE MEMORY CIRCUIT

The core rope memory was the technology created to send us to the moon. Without it, and the many contributions from those forgotten in history, we would not have been able to mark levels of human progress. 
Our bio-circuit is designed with the intention of re-learning this technology’s history. Collaborating with K. hansenii, E. coli, S. pasteurii, and Physarium Polycephalum, we explore new ways to value the labour of preservation.

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03 LEGACY

History is often remembered by those who record it. Engaging with Living Records, we ask you as a viewer, listener, and participant to consider how  We look to alternative methods of record keeping to ensure our survival and existence. 

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