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
Thank you to the contributions and guidance of:
Ryan Hoover, our Professor and Biofabrication Lab head
Mantis Harper-Blanco, MICA’s Biofabrication Lab Technician
the intelligence and efforts of our non human collaborators:
- K. hansenii
- E. coli
- S. pasteurii
- Physarum Polycephalum
and the research and records of:
[1] A. Adamatzky, “Physarum wires: Self-growing self-repairing smart wires made from slime mould,” Sep. 13, 2013, arXiv: arXiv:1309.3583. doi: 10.48550/arXiv.1309.3583.
[2] D. P. Birnbaum, A. Manjula‐Basavanna, A. Kan, B. L. Tardy, and N. S. Joshi, “Hybrid Living Capsules Autonomously
Produced by Engineered Bacteria,” Advanced Science, vol. 8, no. 11, p. 2004699, Jun. 2021, doi: 10.1002/advs.202004699.
[3]L. Nakamura, “Indigenous Circuits,” CHM, Jan. 02, 2014. https://computerhistory.org/blog/indigenous-circuits/
[4] NASA, “Artemis - NASA,” nasa.gov, 2024. [https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/artemis/] ._Internet Archive_. [https://web.archive.org/web/20250314050655/https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/artemis/]
[5]NASA Video, “President Kennedy’s Speech at Rice University,” YouTube. May 18, 2013. [YouTube Video]. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZyRbnpGyzQ
[6] S. Jia, W. Tang, H. Yang, Y. Jia, and H. Zhu, “Preparation and Characterization of Bacterial Cellulose Tube,” in 2009 3rd International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedical Engineering, Beijing, China: IEEE, Jun. 2009, pp. 1–4. doi: 10.1109/ICBBE.2009.5163226.
[7]S. Monteiro, The Fabric of Interface. 2017. doi: https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/10633.001.0001.
[8] S. V. Vadanan, R. R. Pasula, N. Joshi, and S. Lim, “Bioengineering approach for the design of magnetic bacterial cellulose membranes,” Commun Mater, vol. 5, no. 1, p. 242, Nov. 2024, doi: 10.1038/s43246-024-00562-9.