Extra Credit: Microbial Worlds

The art piece I found compelling was by Jennifer Moss. It was a digital photograph of a tree on vinyl. As a lover of music and vinyl records, I was drawn just by the look of her work. I thought it gave it a creative edge and was a unique way to display a piece. The angle, on the ground looking up, of the shot made me feel rooted and therefore one with the microbes around. As a microscopic view of microbes taking place of the sky, it reminded me microbes are everywhere and made me feel that much more surrounded by them.

“De:composition’ by Stephanie Rae Dixon and Mary Beth Leigh was a live art piece where a woman moved in a small box amongst leaves and dirt and other tree matter. The concept was in the name, decomposition, and how microbes help this process. This piece was especially appealing because of a projector that projected the spot with a forest surrounding making one feel like they were in the piece. The piece was enticing and a riveting way to describe decomposition with a body amongst a representation of a part of a forest.

Margo Klass’s “Specimen’ related to our human microbiome lecture. This was a series of dental pieces in poor shape. The concept was about how the human mouth has a world of microbes on its own. With the cavities and missing teeth on some pieces, it appeared he was also showing the damage these microbes can do with poor dental hygiene.

If I was an artist involved with this project show, I would have made a piece about viruses and how they invade cells. I would have created an animated piece with music fitting to an animation of a virus attacking a cell.