1 My artistic research project explores the phenomenon of river plumes-zones where freshwater mixes with seawater, forming unstable transitional ecosystems. These areas are understood as natural interfaces in which processes of adaptation, filtration, and redistribution of life continuously occur.
The project investigates the potential of diatoms as a living adaptive mechanism capable of transitioning from freshwater to marine salinity conditions. This process is approached not only as a biological experiment, but also as a metaphor for boundaries, transformation, and survival.
Subsections of Homework
Week 1 HW: Principles and Practices
1 My artistic research project explores the phenomenon of river plumes-zones where freshwater mixes with seawater, forming unstable transitional ecosystems. These areas are understood as natural interfaces in which processes of adaptation, filtration, and redistribution of life continuously occur.
The project investigates the potential of diatoms as a living adaptive mechanism capable of transitioning from freshwater to marine salinity conditions. This process is approached not only as a biological experiment, but also as a metaphor for boundaries, transformation, and survival.
The choice of diatoms is motivated by the unique structure of their silica shells, whose geometry visually resembles the stained-glass windows of Gothic cathedrals. Just as stained glass in the Middle Ages mediated sacred light and symbolized a connection between humans and the divine, diatoms in this project become “living stained glass”-a microscopic architecture that can filter and transform its environment.
A key element of the work is a critique of anthropocentrism. As a symbolic material, I use human sweat as a weak saline trace of the body’s presence. It functions as a metaphor for human impact—natural yet potentially disruptive.
In this way, the project combines ecological concerns, bioengineering logic of adaptation, and an architectural-artistic metaphor, proposing to view microorganisms not as tools serving humans, but as autonomous agents of resilience and resistance.
2 Goal 1: Prevent ecological harm and unintended environmental release
Goal 2: Ensure biosafety and biosecurity compliance
Goal 3: Promote transparency, accessibility, and accountability
3 Purpose
Currently, diatoms are mostly studied in ecology and biotechnology as indicators of water quality, carbon cycle agents. I would like to consider them as potential tools/participants in filtering.
Design
To make the project work, several elements are required:
Biological setup: cultivation of freshwater diatom species under controlled laboratory conditions and gradual salinity increase experiments (step-by-step acclimation).
Controlled environment: microcosm or mesocosm tanks that simulate plume-like transitions between freshwater and seawater.
Monitoring tools: microscopy, water salinity control, and basic measurements of growth and survival rates.
Artistic implementation: a physical installation where diatoms act as a “living membrane” between freshwater and seawater zones, visually referencing stained-glass structures.
Assumptions
This project relies on several uncertain assumptions:
that freshwater diatoms can successfully adapt to increasing salinity without immediate collapse of the culture;
that the “sweat as transitional salinity” concept is biologically meaningful and not simply symbolic;
that the diatoms’ filtration or barrier-like behavior can be observed in a visually or experimentally legible way;
that the aesthetic architectural metaphor (diatoms as stained glass) can be translated into a working biological installation without losing scientific credibility.
Risks of Failure & “Success”
Potential failure risks:
the cultures may die quickly due to osmotic stress, making adaptation impossible;
contamination of cultures by bacteria or other algae could distort results;
the installation may remain purely conceptual if biological stability cannot be maintained.
Success
If successful, the project could demonstrate that freshwater diatoms are capable of surviving gradual transitions toward marine salinity, highlighting their resilience and adaptability within ecological boundary zones such as river plumes. This would provide both a biological and conceptual model of “living interfaces” - organisms that mediate between two incompatible environments.
Does the option:
Option 1
Option 2
Option 3
Enhance Biosecurity
• By preventing incidents
+
• By helping respond
+
Foster Lab Safety
• By preventing incident
+
• By helping respond
+
Protect the environment
• By preventing incidents
+
• By helping respond
+
Other considerations
• Minimizing costs and burdens to stakeholders
+
• Feasibility?
+
• Not impede research
+
• Promote constructive applications
+
5 For this project, I recommend a layered governance approach combining institutional oversight, technical safeguards, and responsible communication.
Institutional oversight involves mandatory lab safety training, supervision by biosafety officers, and approval of any experiments with diatoms. This ensures immediate risk reduction and fosters a culture of responsibility for interdisciplinary projects.
Technical safeguards include using non-invasive adaptation methods, selecting strains that cannot survive outside controlled conditions, and sterilization protocols. These strategies build safety into the project itself, independent of human compliance.
Responsible communication limits the open dissemination of experimental methods that could be misused, while maintaining transparency about artistic intent and ecological considerations.
Trade-offs include balancing artistic freedom and open knowledge-sharing with safety. Overregulation may constrain creative exploration, but ethical responsibility requires precaution. Assumptions include potential ecological risks from adapted diatoms and uncertainties about unforeseen trait
Homework Questions from Professor Jacobson:
Polymerase error rate: 1 per 10⁷
Biology reduces errors via proofreading and repair.
Average protein: 400 aa → 10¹⁹⁰ possible DNA sequences.
Not all sequences work due to codon bias, mRNA structure, and regulatory constraints.
Homework Questions from Dr. LeProust
1 The standard method used today for synthesizing DNA oligonucleotides (short sequences) is phosphoramidite solid-phase synthesis.
2 Each nucleotide addition has a small error rate, e.g., 0.5–1% of chains fail to add correctly.
After 200 cycles, the overall yield drops exponentially.
3 2000 bp = 2000 nucleotides → way beyond the practical limit of ~200 nt per oligo.