These mockups are for the “Rose Window”; a project in progress as I learn the ins and outs of stained glass. I began by inoculating a collection of Petri dishes containing a medium of sheep’s blood agar with holy water from the Vatican and cured them in resin in order to fashion it into a large-scale rose window. The idea is to visualize the microbial communities captured in the water of those practicing the same faith.
Blood, sheep, shepherding, and holy water are all important symbols in Catholicism. Through the observation of what grows in the holy water the practitioners use to cleanse and bless themselves upon entering holy sites, I can speculate that the microbiome from their skin enters the pool creating a unique bath of sinners and prayers; instead of the individual, the unique signature of the flock.
Research has been conducted to demonstrate the correlation between being close to one another, and sharing similar bacteria. “The researchers found that people who lived together — no matter their relationship — tended to have the same microbe strains in their mouths, and the longer they lived together, the more they shared. ” (Ewen Callaway, Nature.com) The “Rose Window” would NOT be a tool to prove the legitimacy of faith, but a way to look further into the concept that we are all connected through seen, and unseen systems. Is it the signature of a flock? Could a shared microbiome be initiated by the act of blessing oneself? Are there sacred microbes?
This is an ongoing project about visualizing faith through speculative microbiology.