Microscopic Opera
Matthijs Munnik
Microscopic Opera is an opera played in real time by micro-organisms called “C. elegans”, the first creatures to have had their genome entirely sequenced. Through their movements, these worms become the unconscious performers of an abstract opera played in real time, made visible and audible with the help of sensors and cameras attached to microscopes.
Can micro-organisms also be “artists”? And does our relationship with these creatures change after seeing them in this artistic, theatrical context?
Born in 1989, Matthijs Munnik lives and works in The Hague, the Netherlands. He studied at the Academy of Arts in Groningen, then graduated from the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague in 2011 (art science department). Half-way between performance and installation, with a large part given over to light, sound and colour, his work is inspired as much by sensory perception as by scientific and biotechnological research.
His installation, Microscopic Opera, won an award last year from the Artist & Designer 4 Genomics Awards and was nominated for the Rotterdam Design Award.
MICROSCOPIC OPERA
Installation, Netherlands, 2011
Can micro-organisms be “artists”? Does our relationship with these creatures change after seeing them in this artistic, theatrical context? In his search for a micro-organism that might have the qualities of a performer, Matthijs Munnik became interested in the laboratory worm, C. elegans. This worm, less than one millimetre long, moves as elegantly as its name suggests. It is also the first creature to have had its genome entirely sequenced. The various mutations it undergoes change the way in which it moves: some worms move in spirals, others coil up, and some can even become morbidly obese.
In Microscopic Opera, Matthijs Munnik has selected five different worm mutations presented in five separate petri dishes. These five groups of “performers” are filmed and presented on a big screen in real time by means of cameras attached to microscopes. The artist has created a special software programme to follow the worms and translate their movement into sound, making them into unconscious performers in music played in the macroscopic world far above their heads.
Researchers are like gods to these defenceless worms, which they can control down to their last cell, whereas here the artist seeks to give these creatures the power to affect us, too, in our world.
MATTHIJS MUNNIK
Born in 1989, Matthijs Munnik lives and works in The Hague, the Netherlands. He studied at the Academy of Arts in Groningen, then graduated from the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague in 2011 (art science department). Half-way between performance and installation, with a large part given over to light, sound and colour, his work is inspired as much by sensory perception as by scientific and biotechnological research.
His installation, Microscopic Opera, won an award last year from the Artist & Designer 4 Genomics Awards and was nominated for the Rotterdam Design Award.
