Microoganism Linguistics was created in collaboration with social designer Chen-Yu Wang for the Having Future Friends/Tribe Against Machine e-textiles residency swatch book and gallery presentation in 2020.

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It was composed of conductive copper foil applied to a transparent non-conductive backing, The character set was generated by observing a live kombucha culture and then interpreting the shapes via the human body. The resultant derivative forms were composed into a speculative "language" for kombucha, which are represented on the circuit panel.

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Conceptual Axis

Our objectives with this piece were to start a dialogue around the anthropocentric nature of human existence and consumption via kombucha cultures. Why do we privilege organisms from the Phylum Chordata? Are single celled organisms any less deserving of respect? We sought to create a fictional language for kombucha as though it were able to communicate by forming shapes on the surface of a culture, and presented the resultant work for the residency participants to create further circuits, in effect creating "words" via electrical connection.