Winogradsky days - culturing microorganisms the Winogradsky way, a workshop with Kira O'Reilly

5th and 12th of May 13-17h

Kuusipalaa Kolmas linja 7, 00530 Helsinki

There is a limited amount of participants please register until 30th of April.

Winogradsky Columns are a method of culturing diverse communities of microorganisms in a closed environment and for understanding microbial ecologies through observation of them as organise themselves into distinct layers depending on their nutrient requirements.

During the workshop we create a number of columns using materials from the local Helsinki surroundings ie soil, water, and add and experiment with various combinations of nutrients that will advantage the proliferation of different kinds micro-organisms.

It takes a long time to see the different strata of micro-organisms in Windogradsky columns, as we get our hands wet and muddy we will use this as a departure point from which to talk about the environments and eco-systems we are part of, in terms of scale both physical and temporal, and different ways our columns  might function, as environmental portraits, metabolising archives, durational sculptures, social planning for micro-organism communities, bacterial architecting etc.

We are planning for a third session to meet again in the fall to view and discuss the established columns.

#microorganisms #soil #water #metabolism #environment #biology #oxygen #sunlight #ecosystems #biogeochemical #biosphere

Kira O’Reilly is a Helsinki based artist; her practice, both wilfully interdisciplinary and entirely undisciplined, stems from a visual art background; it employs performance, biotechnical practices and writing with which to consider speculative reconfigurations around The Body. But she is no longer sure if she even does that anymore.