'Super-natural'
is an ongoing work which makes a connection between two points in
time, the peak in witchcraft from the cusp of the enlightenment
period in Western history and the emergent molecular technologies
in our current time, both periods signalling the onset of some kind
of revolutionary or accelerated change- a paradgm shift. Witchcraft,
during the infamous Salem witchcraft trials of 1692, has been described
as a manifestion of extreme stress and anxiety. A symptom from the
mediation and control of the cultural, political and religious systems
present during this time.
''Tituba'
a slave of the Rev. John Procter and the central protagonist from
the Salem witchcraft trials has been synthesized into a new and
unique chemically engineered bio-synthetic entity. 'Tituba' was
designed as a sensor from circular plasmid vectors and inserts,
she was ligated, digested, cloned initially into e-coli DH5 ∂
and then finally transformed into the AmyE gene of Bacillus Subtilis
168 with a two-component regulatory system for sending and receiving
signals. She excretes fluorescent protein under stress and is only
visible under blue ultra-violet light, otherwise she is invisible.
Tituba'
is currently in deep cryo freeze at -80ºc and awaits further acts
of abstracted transformation. |