IDEA 1: YOKAI Interface Image:DeeVid AI Agent
Concept: ENG:
Traditionally in Japan, yokai have been described as presences that emerge when the boundaries between natural phenomena, humans, animals, objects, and places begin to waver. The uncanny is not something that is always “there,” but rather an emergence that occurs when a person, a place, and a set of conditions rarely align. The human body is not only a microclimate that emits heat, humidity, breath, and volatile compounds, but also carries an individual-specific microbiome. Therefore, the presence of a person in a place does not merely interfere temporarily with its local ecology; it also leaves an accumulating trace of microbial relations. Yokai Interface imagines a site in which such invisible accumulations of relation rise, at certain moments, into uncanny presence.
Flying Humanoid / Contemporary Alchemical Practice Section 1: Abstract Abstract Flying Humanoid is an artistic research project that revisits the continuity between the human body, matter, and nature through synthetic biology.
Subsections of Projects
THREE Final Project Ideas
IDEA 1: YOKAI Interface
Image:DeeVid AI Agent
Concept:
ENG: Traditionally in Japan, yokai have been described as presences that emerge when the boundaries between natural phenomena, humans, animals, objects, and places begin to waver. The uncanny is not something that is always “there,” but rather an emergence that occurs when a person, a place, and a set of conditions rarely align. The human body is not only a microclimate that emits heat, humidity, breath, and volatile compounds, but also carries an individual-specific microbiome. Therefore, the presence of a person in a place does not merely interfere temporarily with its local ecology; it also leaves an accumulating trace of microbial relations. Yokai Interface imagines a site in which such invisible accumulations of relation rise, at certain moments, into uncanny presence.
I think of the human body as a “microclimate” that constantly emits heat, humidity, breath, volatile compounds, and disturbances in airflow. This microclimate affects the microorganisms that inhabit the body from within, while outwardly, a person’s mere presence subtly alters local environmental conditions. In other words, simply by being there, a person rewrites the “climate” of a place for the biological materials that inhabit it. These bodily emissions do not merely accompany the human body;
they subtly reshape the local conditions under which microbes survive, grow, move, and accumulate.
Point 2 “The Body as a Carrier of a Distinct Microbiome” 固有の常在菌叢を伴う身体
Each human body carries its own distinct microbiome. Therefore, when a person occupies a place, they do not merely interfere temporarily with the environment; they also leave microbial traces of relation within it. Through breath, contact, movement, and duration of stay, the microorganisms they bring—and the effects they produce—interact with the ecology already present in that place, giving rise to selection, exclusion, competition, and coexistence. These processes gradually accumulate as a history of relations between the person and the place.
Point 3 “The Uncanny Emerging as an Accumulation of Relations” 関係の堆積として浮かび上がる怪異
Yokai Interface imagines a site—an uncanny emergence—in which the microclimatic and microbial relations accumulated between a person and a place rise temporarily into sensory phenomena once a certain threshold is crossed. The uncanny is not something intentionally produced by someone, but a fleeting sense of presence that emerges only when a person, a place, and environmental conditions rarely align.
Sensory phenomena perceived first by the body, such as blurring, haze, faint luminescence, scent, and slight shifts in temperature.
2. Material transformation
Changes in the state of the material itself, such as shifts in opacity, surface whitening, pigment deposition, and changes in texture.
3. Residual trace
A temporary memory that remains after the emergence, such as a fading halo, a delayed stain-like mark, or other short-lived traces.
Technical components
Aim 1
Design and implement a multi-input cell-free system or engineered living material that produces a temporary visible output only when bodily and environmental inputs such as breath, temperature, and humidity align, and test whether an emergence can arise as a sensory phenomenon such as blurring, haze, or faint luminescence.
呼気・温度・湿度などの身体／環境入力が重なったときにのみ一時的な可視出力を生じる、多入力型の cell-free または engineered living material を設計・実装し、にじみ・曇り・微弱発光などの感覚的現象として出現が立ち上がるかを検証する。
Possible technical components:
multi-input threshold logic, cell-free expression or engineered living materials, and sensory outputs such as haze, faint luminescence, or surface change.
多入力型の閾値ロジック、cell-free 発現または engineered living material、にじみ・微弱発光・表面変化などの感覚的出力
the first version of the proposal
IDEA 2: The Archive That Wants to Die
Concept:
ENG: The Archive That Wants to Die is a speculative living material designed for data that was stored for management, not memory. The project focuses on traces accumulated in the cloud: location histories, metadata, abandoned drafts, duplicate images, screenshots, access logs, and files that remain only because deletion feels impossible. These fragments are not preserved as memories. They are residues of control, prediction, indecision, and automatic storage. By embedding such data into a self-decomposing living material, the project transforms deletion from an invisible digital command into a visible ecological process. The archive does not protect data from disappearance. It gives data a body that can decay.
Flying Humanoid / Contemporary Alchemical Practice
Section 1: Abstract
Abstract
Flying Humanoid is an artistic research project that revisits the continuity between the human body, matter, and nature through synthetic biology.
In modern Western rational thought, the human body is often understood as separate from nature and from the material world. In contrast, East Asian alchemical thought imagined the body, matter, and nature as continuous fields of transformation. Within this worldview, the pursuit of immortality, flight, and bodily transformation historically and mythologically intersects with the emergence of gunpowder.
As an artist working with fireworks, I am interested in returning to this unfinished alchemical dream through contemporary biological tools.
Rather than treating the body as a closed biological individual, this project asks whether body-derived materials can be read as part of a wider material circulation: minerals, ions, metals, smoke, flame, and atmosphere.
The long-term vision of this project is to transform body-derived materials into expressive media such as pigments, smoke, flame, or temporary body-like forms appearing in the air.
However, the first experimental step is much smaller and more concrete: to design a genetic construct that expresses a metal-binding protein, such as metallothionein, as a possible biological interface for binding trace metals from body-derived materials.
This first step does not yet make fireworks from the body. Instead, it asks whether synthetic biology can create a bridge between body-derived matter and material expression.
If successful, the project could lead toward future experiments in which trace elements from sweat, hair, nails, blood, or other body-derived materials are detected, bound, concentrated, and eventually translated into visible or atmospheric forms.
Previous Experiments: Body-Derived Materials and Fireworks
In previous experiments, I tested materials such as blood, DNA, and hair as possible sources of inorganic elements. For example, I tried reacting blood-derived material with luminol solution and observed a blue flame-like emission. I also experimented with drying DNA and mixing it with gunpowder, and with extracting sulfur-related material from hair. These were small-scale personal experiments, and they were not successful as functional pyrotechnic materials.
However, these failed attempts became an important conceptual starting point for Flying Humanoid. They made it clear that directly turning body-derived materials into pyrotechnic material is technically difficult, while also suggesting that the human body can be understood not only as an organic subject, but also as a possible source of minerals, metals, and chemical transformations.
The current synthetic biology direction develops this earlier question further. Instead of directly mixing body-derived materials with pyrotechnic materials, I now ask whether biological tools can first detect, bind, or concentrate trace elements from body-derived matter before translating them into artistic media.
Previous experiment using blood-derived material and luminol reaction as part of an early investigation into making pyrotechnic expression from human body-derived elements.
Stills from a documentation video of previous experiments with body-derived materials and pyrotechnic transformation.
AIM 1: Experimental
Project Aims
Aim 1 — Experimental Aim: Design a Metallothionein Expression Construct
Aim 1 is to design a first genetic construct that expresses a metal-binding protein, such as metallothionein, as a biological interface for binding trace metals contained in body-derived materials.
The larger vision of this project is to transform body-derived materials into expressive media, but the first experimental step needs to be small, concrete, and testable.
Rather than immediately attempting to recover metals from sweat, hair, nails, or blood-derived materials, this aim focuses first on producing a protein that may bind trace metals such as Cu, Zn, or Fe.
The first construct will be designed in Benchling. A possible construct architecture is:
This schematic shows the first proposed construct for Aim 1. The construct is designed to express a 6xHis-tagged metallothionein protein in a cell-free or E. coli-based expression system. The T7 promoter drives transcription, the RBS supports translation initiation, the 6xHis tag allows detection or purification, and the metallothionein CDS encodes the metal-binding protein.
This construct is intended for expression in a cell-free system or an E. coli-based system. The T7 promoter enables transcription by T7 RNA polymerase, and the RBS supports translation initiation. The 6xHis tag would make the expressed protein easier to detect or purify, while the metallothionein CDS encodes the metal-binding protein.
The goal of this aim is not yet to concentrate metals from the body or to produce pyrotechnic material. Rather, it is to establish a first biological component: a protein expression system that can later be tested for metal binding.
JP
この構成は、cell-free system または E. coli 系での発現を想定している。T7 promoter は T7 RNA polymerase による転写を可能にし、RBS は翻訳開始を助ける。6xHis tag は発現したタンパク質の検出や精製をしやすくし、metallothionein CDS は金属結合タンパク質をコードする。
T7 promoter The T7 promoter acts as the starting switch for transcription. When T7 RNA polymerase recognizes this promoter, it begins transcribing the downstream sequence into RNA.
RBS / Ribosome Binding Site RBS stands for ribosome binding site. After the mRNA is produced, the ribosome binds to this site and begins translation.
6xHis tag The 6xHis tag is a short tag made of six histidine residues. It is added to make the expressed protein easier to detect or purify later.
Metallothionein CDS The metallothionein CDS is the central coding sequence of this construct. Metallothionein is a protein that may bind trace metals such as Cu, Zn, or Fe, and it is intended here as the first biological component for binding metals from body-derived materials.
T7 terminator The T7 terminator is a sequence that stops transcription. When T7 RNA polymerase reaches this region, RNA synthesis is terminated.
Transcription direction The arrow in the schematic shows that transcription proceeds from left to right. It starts at the T7 promoter, reads through the 6xHis tag and metallothionein CDS as one mRNA, and ends at the T7 terminator.
After designing the construct in Benchling, the next practical step is to prepare it for Twist Bioscience ordering. Ordering the construct would make it possible to move from a conceptual design to an actual DNA sequence that can be tested experimentally.
At this stage, the goal is not to order the entire long-term Flying Humanoid system, but only the smallest testable biological component: a metallothionein expression construct.
The goal of this Benchling step is to move from a conceptual project proposal toward an actual DNA sequence that could potentially be ordered from Twist Bioscience.
JP
次のステップとして、Aim 1 の構想を Benchling 上の DNA construct に落とし込むことを始めた。
The key open decision is which metallothionein sequence to use. For a first test construct, I would prefer a short, well-characterized metallothionein CDS that can be expressed in E. coli or a cell-free system.
For the first construct, I selected human metallothionein 2A (MT2A) as an initial candidate because it is short, well-known, and directly related to metal binding in the human body.
The first Benchling sequence was a draft used to understand the construct structure. During annotation, I realized that the terminator region was too short for an actual Twist order.
Therefore, I decided to revise the construct as a second version with a complete expression cassette, including a validated terminator sequence.
Like v1, v2 also had a terminator region that seemed too short for a real Twist order. Therefore, I treated v2 as another draft for understanding the construct structure, rather than as a final synthesis-ready sequence.
I checked the 6xHis-MT2A fusion protein annotation in Benchling using the biochemical properties view. The translated sequence started with the expected N-terminal methionine and 6xHis tag, and the stop codon was found at the end of the selected coding region. This suggests that the 6xHis tag and human MT2A CDS are in the same reading frame without an internal stop codon.
JP
Benchling の biochemical properties view で 6xHis-MT2A fusion protein の翻訳を確認した。 翻訳配列は expected N-terminal methionine と 6xHis tag から始まり、stop codon は選択した coding region の最後に確認された。 そのため、6xHis tag と human MT2A CDS は同じ reading frame でつながっており、途中に stop codon はないと考えられる。
Benchling Design and Twist Ordering Attempt
To move Aim 1 toward an actual DNA construct, I created a series of Benchling drafts.
The first draft, FlyingHumanoid_MT_construct_v1, was used to understand the basic structure of the construct. However, the terminator region was too short for an actual Twist order.
I then created FlyingHumanoid_MT2A_expression_construct_v2, but this version also had a terminator region that seemed too short for a real synthesis order. Therefore, I treated both v1 and v2 as structural drafts rather than final order-ready sequences.
Finally, I created FlyingHumanoid_MT2A_expression_construct_v3 as a revised expression cassette. This version includes EcoRI and HindIII flanking sites, a T7 promoter, RBS, N-terminal 6xHis tag, GS linker, human MT2A CDS, stop codon, and T7 terminator.
I checked the 6xHis-MT2A fusion protein annotation in Benchling using the biochemical properties view. The translated sequence started with the expected N-terminal methionine and 6xHis tag, and the stop codon was found at the end of the selected coding region. This suggests that the 6xHis tag and human MT2A CDS are in the same reading frame without an internal stop codon.
The construct was then prepared as a 306 bp gene fragment for a Twist ordering attempt.
In my presentation, I initially discussed the possibility of recovering or concentrating K⁺ from body-derived materials. I chose K⁺ as an early conceptual target because potassium is relatively abundant in the human body, including in sweat, and it has a lower environmental concern compared with many heavy metals. It also connects conceptually to pyrotechnic color and material transformation.
However, when I moved from the conceptual slide toward an actual DNA construct that could be designed and ordered, I realized that a K⁺ uptake or sensing system would be too complex as a first experimental step. It would require careful control of ion transport, intracellular concentration, regulation, and measurement.
Therefore, for the first Twist ordering attempt, I shifted the project toward a smaller and more testable construct: a 6xHis-tagged human MT2A / metallothionein expression cassette.
This revision keeps the larger concept of working with body-derived trace elements, but changes the first biological step from ion recovery to metal-binding protein expression. Instead of immediately trying to extract elements from the body, Aim 1 now focuses on producing a biological component that could later be tested for trace metal binding.
しかし、スライド上の構想から、実際に設計・注文可能なDNA constructへ進めようとしたとき、K⁺ uptake / sensing system は最初の実験ステップとしては複雑すぎることに気づいた。イオン輸送、細胞内濃度制御、制御系、測定方法などを慎重に扱う必要があるためである。
そのため、最初のTwist注文では、より小さく検証可能な construct として、6xHis-tagged human MT2A / metallothionein expression cassette に切り替えた。
Previous direction: K⁺ uptake system
Previous K⁺ uptake construct idea
In the earlier presentation version, I considered using the bacterial kdpABC potassium uptake system as a possible route for concentrating K⁺ from body-derived materials. I looked up sequence references for kdpA, kdpB, and kdpC, and considered pET28a(+) as a possible E. coli expression vector because it is a T7-based bacterial expression vector commonly used for protein expression.
The idea was to use a T7 expression system to express potassium transporter-related genes, potentially as a first biological step toward K⁺ uptake or concentration. However, this approach became too complex for the first Twist order because kdpABC is a multi-component membrane transporter system. It would require correct membrane expression, ion transport validation, and careful measurement of K⁺ uptake.
Aim 2 is to test whether the expressed 6xHis-tagged human MT2A protein can bind trace metals in controlled model solutions.
The first experiments would not use body-derived materials immediately. Instead, I would begin with model solutions containing trace metals such as Cu, Zn, or Fe. This would make it easier to evaluate whether the expressed MT2A protein can bind metals under controlled conditions.
If binding can be detected, the next step would be to compare untreated model solutions with solutions exposed to the expressed MT2A protein. Possible readout methods include colorimetric metal assays, fluorescence-based assays, mass spectrometry, or ICP-MS if available.
Only after this controlled test would I move toward more complex body-derived materials such as sweat, hair, nails, blood-derived samples, or other biological residues.
JP
Aim 2 — 発展的目標：微量金属の結合をテストする
Aim 2では、発現した6xHis-tagged human MT2A protein が、制御されたモデル溶液中で微量金属を結合できるかを試す。
最初の実験では、いきなり身体由来物質を使うのではなく、Cu、Zn、Fe などの微量金属を含むモデル溶液から始める。これにより、MT2A protein が制御された条件下で金属を結合できるかを評価しやすくする。
Aim 3 is the long-term artistic vision of Flying Humanoid: to translate detected, bound, or concentrated body-derived elements into expressive media such as pigments, inks, smoke, flame, or temporary body-like forms appearing in the air.
This aim does not assume that biological extraction directly produces pyrotechnic material. Instead, it treats synthetic biology as a first transformation step, where body-derived matter becomes detectable, bindable, and eventually translatable into another medium.
In the future, recovered or symbolically transformed body-derived elements could become part of smoke, pyrotechnic, or aerial expressions. The final vision is not simply to “use the body” as a material, but to reimagine the body as a temporary mineral field that can move through matter, fire, and atmosphere.
In the long-term vision of Flying Humanoid, recovered or symbolically transformed body-derived materials would be incorporated into smoke, flame, or pyrotechnic effects. These effects could be mounted on drones to form a temporary human-like figure in the sky. Through contemporary synthetic biology, this project reconsiders an unfinished dream from East Asian alchemical traditions two thousand years ago: the transformation of the body, the desire for flight, and the emergence of gunpowder.
From the Individual Body to the Urban Body
From the Individual Body to the Urban Body
Beyond the individual body, this project could also expand toward the scale of the urban body.
If sweat, hair, nails, or blood-derived materials are the traces of an individual body, then sewage sludge, wastewater, and incineration ash can be understood as traces of a collective body. Cities constantly metabolize human activity, producing invisible streams of minerals, metals, residues, and waste.
In this expanded direction, Flying Humanoid would move from the personal body to the urban body. Body-derived trace elements would no longer refer only to one person, but to the accumulated material traces of many bodies living together in a city.
This shift opens a future direction in which synthetic biology could be used not only to bind trace metals from individual body-derived materials, but also to read and transform the mineral residues of urban life into pigments, smoke, flame, or atmospheric expression.
In the longer term, this idea also connects to urban mining and closed-loop material systems for future habitats, including space environments, where biological and mineral residues must be detected, recovered, and transformed rather than discarded. In this expanded view, Flying Humanoid is not only about transforming the individual body into atmospheric expression, but also about imagining future systems in which the residues of bodies, cities, and habitats become materials for new forms of life, technology, and art.
Ginkgo Bioworks: Cloud lab workflows for cell-free or microbial expression, protein validation, and future trace metal-binding assays.
Twist Bioscience: DNA synthesis and construct development for the first 6xHis-tagged human MT2A expression cassette.
Addgene: Reference source for plasmids and expression vectors, especially during the earlier K⁺ uptake direction using pET28a(+) and kdpABC-related constructs.
Waters Corporation: Quantitative analysis of trace metals and validation of metal-binding or recovery from model and body-derived samples.
Opentrons: Automation and reproducible liquid-handling workflows for screening metal-binding conditions across multiple samples.
SecureDNA: Responsible sequence screening and documentation when moving from artistic concept to actual DNA synthesis.
Together, these partners outline a possible workflow from DNA synthesis and protein expression to trace metal analysis, material transformation, and resource recovery. Beyond artistic practice, this workflow also connects to the idea of urban mining, where metals are recovered from wastewater, sewage sludge, incineration ash, and other residues of collective human activity. In the longer term, it could also relate to closed-loop material systems for space environments, where biological and mineral residues must be detected, recovered, and transformed rather than discarded.
