During my minor study, Arts&Nature, I got very inspired by the shapes and textures made by bacteria in petridishes. I wanted to make people aware of the hidden beauty of these tiny creatures,  as microbes are so invisible but yet so crucial to everyday life. I did this by combining the bacteria with something that is very present in society: letters. Through a lot of trial and error, I went from growing the bacteria at home in my livingroom, to working in an actual laboratory with an actual white lab coat on. I worked by placing different types of bacteria on a specific nutrient medium, which created a reaction between the two and resulted in different colours. Eventually, I knew which bacteria made which colour, and I could really ‘design’ the letter to a certain extent.

The interesting thing about these letters is that they keep on changing, as the bacteria that make them are still alive and eventually die when the petridish runs out of food for them. This changes the colours, textures and even the shapes.