MICRO BEING IN THE CITY

Manhattan, NYC, a place with a million people, is also home to billions of microorganisms. Although too small to be seen without a microscope, microbes are everywhere in the city’s water, air, and soil, as well as in human body systems. We all live with microbes and microbial community assemblages yet pay less attention to how powerful they can be in defining our densely populated urban environment.

This project is to envision the invisible by highlighting the beings of microbes through creating a wearable art piece that captures, cultivates and presents the microbial colonies in the city. It aims to depict a bigger picture of urban living spaces from a micro perspective and vice versa, to trace the microbial environment in the physical cityscape. The art piece - a T-shirt - is made from plastic fabric and is placed in different parts of cities in building complexes, natural public spaces, and underground facilities to catch existing microorganisms. Then it is displayed and observed under constant humidity and temperature control. The growth of the microorganisms clusters on the fabric envisions the transition from invisibility to visibility. At the same time, the T-shirt becomes an object that connects the presence of human beings with the “micro-beings.”