Richard Bright: You’ve recently created a number of installations, sculptures, and videos incorporating animations made with molecular visualization software. What is the underlying focus of this work?

Laura Splan: I began experimenting with this software during a bioart residency in a lab that uses it for their antibody research. In the process of tinkering with its features and hunting and pecking my way around its interface, I began to consider the many ways in which technology mediates our relationship to the biological world. Some of my work with this software has focused on the interface design and naming conventions for its tools and features.

Laura Splan, 2021, studio production with the molecular visualization software PyMOL

One feature called “sculpting” not only connotes the modularity and mutability underlying the premise of genetic engineering but also elevates it to an “art form” with a name that insinuates room for subjectivity, artistry, and artistic license in how one might sculpt. All of my molecular animations use the sculpting feature in some way, perhaps most visibly in the first piece, Tickling the Bonds [https://www.laurasplan.com/tickling-the-bonds] (2018). By using the feature in unconventional ways, I created animations that were collaborative doodles of sorts between the software, my hand, and the molecular structures that were being disrupted. As the protein structures were manipulated, the software rendered uncanny disturbances in the form of sometimes spastic and sometimes sublime movements. The video is an unedited screen recording of my performed interaction with the software with my mouse hidden. The labor of the user (me) and the software (PyMOL) is collapsed by the seemingly autonomous form hovering in an infinite virtual black void.

“Tickling the Bonds” by Laura Splan from Laura Splan on Vimeo.

In the process of creating the Unraveling [https://www.laurasplan.com/unraveling] (2020) animations, I played with the naming conventions for the colors available in the software’s palette by limiting myself to colors whose names were entangled with idyllic representations of the natural world such as blue skies, green forests, ripe fruit, and romantic flowers. I’m fascinated by the subjective aesthetics of scientific representation such as adding color, since most of the models I was using were smaller than visible wavelengths and therefore have no color. So, the mere act of adding color is another layer of translation and fabrication. The colors themselves present additional layers of abstraction built into the interfaces of the technologies we use to engage with and manipulate the natural world.

Unraveling (Marine/Aquamarine/Skyblue) from Laura Splan on Vimeo.

RB: For your Unraveling animations and Renatured prints, you collaborated with scientists. What was the starting point for this collaboration, and can you say how these works were created?

LS: While sheltering in place in March of 2020, I refocused all my energy to my screen-based projects. I had been wanting to continue the molecular animations I had begun in 2018 anyway so I returned to the software with a new focus on SARS models. I began collaborating remotely with biotech scientists at Integral Molecular where I did my previous bioart residency. In our remote meetings, we discussed their research on the spike protein and the mechanisms of infectivity on human ACE2 cells. We also discussed the use of non-human antibodies for human vaccines which was a focus of my first residency in with them. Our collaboration consisted of searching for and selecting models to be used in my animations as well as discussions about the use of color in scientific visualizations of molecular structures.

The Unraveling [https://www.laurasplan.com/unraveling] (2020) animations are started by unravelling (or unfolding) the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and applying different colors to structural representations. The individual protein animations are created by morphing the folded and unfolded forms which were then exported as a series of high-resolution images. I use conventional video editing tools to create the different kaleidoscopic arrangements of the animated proteins. Renatured (2020) is a series of large format prints of stills from the animations.

Laura Splan, 2020, “Renatured (Raspberry:Slate:Violet)”, archival pigment print, 48 inches x 48 inches

RB: What kind of experience do you want this work to create for a lay audience that may not have an understanding of molecular biology?

LS: I had the opportunity to create a large-scale installation of the animations accompanied by an immersive soundscape at the Brooklyn Army Terminal at BioBAT Artspace in August of 2020. With COVID restrictions, the gallery invited me to use their space while their gallery activities were suspended. The only way for visitors to see my Unraveling exhibition [https://www.laurasplan.com/unraveling-exhibition] was for me to lead them on a private tour. So, I had the rare pleasure of hearing everyone’s reactions to the work in real time. I allowed people to enter the space and experience it on their own terms, waiting to explain anything until they offered their own thoughts. I tried to let their comments or questions be the breadcrumbs for the direction of the conversation. Many people commented on the mesmerizing and meditative quality of the installation but also on the reflective space which more than one visitor described as “womb like”. I tried to let people experience the installation as a space of solace and contemplation before reconciling or even recognizing the biotechnological materiality of the coronavirus proteins that the animations were created from.

Laura Splan, 2020, installation view of “Unraveling” at BioBAT Art Space at the Brooklyn Army Terminal, Photo by On White Wall

“Laura Splan: Unraveling” at BioBAT Art Space at the Brooklyn Army Terminal from Laura Splan on Vimeo.

RB: Your recent installation, Syndemic Sublime, and your solo exhibition, Entangled Entities included works that explored interspecies entanglements. Can you talk about your use of different media to exploring these issues in your work?

LS: Both of these installations include more molecular animations that intertwine the coronavirus spike protein with llama nanobodies. These animations emerged out of an interest in the magnitude and complexity of biotechnological systems that rely on animals for the production of biological products for pharmaceutical research. These animals are “living factories” for human vaccines, antiviral treatments as well a number of more common drugs. From transgenic vaccine development to zoonotic diseases, our understanding of what it means to be “human” in the “natural world” is becoming increasingly complex. So I find it useful and even necessary to approach different parts of this complexity with different tools and materials.

Laura Splan, 2021, installation view of “Syndemic Sublime” at Pioneer Works

These installations include networked sculptures that rematerialize the often hidden systems of the biotechnological landscape. Remote Entanglements [https://www.laurasplan.com/entangled-entities-exhibition] (2019) is a networked fan controlled by wind data for a biotech laboratory vivarium. Faint text on a wall invites viewers to come close to read “our distance allows our intimacy”. The phrase refers to the complexities of existence in the biotechnological age where understanding of our own bodies and the bodies of others is increasingly mediated by technology. The sculpture blows a breeze in the viewers face as they read the text. The speed of the networked fan intermittently adjusts to the wind conditions near llamas living at a biological laboratory vivarium in rural Pennsylvania. Their llamas are used for antibody research and production for human vaccines including COVID.

Laura Splan, 2021, installation view of “Entangled Entities” at The New Gallery

Laura Splan, 2019, detail of text on wall for “Remote Entanglements”, networked sculpture

Contested Territories [https://www.laurasplan.com/contested-territories] (2019) is a series of networked laboratory mixers containing laboratory llama feces. The laboratory machines activate when Twitter hashtags associated with the culturally contested status of Science are tweeted. As the networked devices intermittently check for the latest tweets, the mixers’ movements materialize the sociopolitical complexities of language. Here, the mere mention of #sciencebased agitates tubes filled with feces. When taking office, the Trump administration controversially advised how to improve the chances of receiving research funding with the suggestion to avoid seven words and phrases like “vulnerable”, “diversity”, “entitlement”, “transgender”, “fetus”, “evidence-based”, and “science-based”. Each lab shaker is accompanied by an etched stainless-steel placard with the corresponding Twitter hashtag that activates it.

Laura Splan, 2019, “Contested Territories”, networked laboratory shakers

Laura Splan, 2019, detail of microcontrollers for “Contested Territories

Laura Splan, 2019, detail of twitter hashtags on plates for “Contested Territories”

Laura Splan, 2019, detail of llama feces in “Contested Territories”

RB: Some of your animations such as Denatured, Tickling the Bonds, and Syndemic Sublime use the molecular visualization software as a generative animation tool. Can you say more about your process of using the software to create these animations?

LS: My early molecular animations were just leveraging the spastic movements that were a by-product of sculpting the protein forms. The software would generate its own movements in response to manipulations I was making with my mouse in both Denatured [https://www.laurasplan.com/denatured] (2020) and Tickling the Bonds [https://www.laurasplan.com/tickling-the-bonds] (2019).

But in Syndemic Sublime [https://www.laurasplan.com/syndemic-sublime-animations] (September 2021) I am disrupting the positions of different amino acid residues along the proteins to create computer generated animations. The animations intertwine molecular models of SARS-CoV-2 with both human and non-human protein structures such as antibodies and cell receptors. The generative movement is created using data from COVID deaths in the U.S. over the first 20 months of the pandemic to disrupt the 20 amino acid residues along the protein structures. The resulting disruptions create mesmerizing tableaus that are sometimes spastic and sometimes sublime. Each animation has a unique starting and ending form as it slowly morphs from its biological folded form or “conformation” to its technologically distorted form. The generative quality of the process allows for unpredictable and unique transformations within each animation as the software creates unexpected visuals. The unraveling and collision of the proteins results in both jarring glitches and in soothing movements. The animations combine models of proteins from the coronavirus with proteins from llamas, alpacas, cats, dogs, pangolins, bats and humans evoking our increasing interspecies entanglements in the contemporary biotechnological landscape. From zoonotic diseases to transgenic vaccine development, our understanding of what it means to be “human” in the “natural world” is becoming increasingly complex. The slow, quiet animations create liminal spaces for reflection, contemplation, mourning, and wonder at the unseen molecular forces of the biological world affecting our daily lives in profound ways.

Syndemic Sublime
(Pangolin, Llama, SARS-CoV-2) from Laura Splan on Vimeo.

RB: You described your recent site-specific commission for the 2021 Bruges Triennial, Disentanglement, as an attempt “to evoke a ‘biomedical imaginary’ with provocations of curiosity and wonder while providing space for psychologically charged liminal states of recognition and obfuscation that can feel both otherworldly and intimate.” Can you say more about this?

LS: My work for the triennial was a site-specific intervention located at the Museum of Our Lady of the Potterie whose hospital, established in the 13th century, once served plague victims. The Potterie houses a still functioning Gothic church with Baroque interior and a museum collection that includes tapestries depicting miracles and a silver treasury with reliquaries. I was inspired by the complex history of the Potterie that is rich with entanglements of the earthly and heavenly. It is a site that has offered medical healing as well as spiritual salvation for over 700 years. I wanted to situate my work in the Potterie in a way that was both interwoven and in conversation with the collection.

Disentanglement [https://www.laurasplan.com/disentanglement] (2021) is a video triptych with molecular animations created using models of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus spike proteins, ACE2 human cell receptors and llama nanobodies. Its form echoes conventions of the presentation of portable altarpieces in the tradition of Flemish Primitive painting. The colors of the animations are drawn from paintings in the Potterie’s art collection including a 15th century depiction of St. Michael that was removed for the placement of my triptych. St. Michael, considered the patron of both warriors and the sick alike, is shown waging battle against two demons in the painting that is thought to have been commissioned by a nun from the convent of Our Lady of the Potterie. The slow undulating movements of the animation attempt to evoke the sense of wonder and reflection commanded by such religious subject matter of the devotional works and altarpieces of Early Netherlandish painting.

Disentanglement (video sculpture) from Laura Splan on Vimeo.

Laura Splan, 2021, “Disentanglement” in the Bruges Triennial, synchronous multichannel video sculpture, Photo by Matthias Desmet for Triënnale Brugge

RB: Your current solo exhibition Rhapsody for an Expanded Biotechnological Apparatus is a sound and textiles installation in a freight elevator. Can you talk about how this work relates to your animations and networked sculptures?

LS: This soundscape and rug included in Rhapsody for an Expanded Biotechnological Apparatus [https://www.laurasplan.com/rhapsody-for-an-expanded-biotechnological-apparatus] (2021) were actually created in 2019 at the same time as my earlier networked sculptures and molecular animations.

The installation reenvisions the Tang Teaching Museum’s elevator as a biological cell and its visitors as proteins as they are prompted to engage with a haptic textiles sculpture while listening to a sonic tour of a biotech laboratory. The soundscape is a wandering journey created from recordings made during my 2018 bioart residency. Robotic movements of machines, gurgling dish drains, and conversations among scientists come together to create a soundscape entitled Chaperone (2019). In biology, a “chaperone” is a type of protein that helps other proteins fold properly inside the lumen of a cell. The accompanying textiles sculpture entitled Lumen (2019), prompts visitors to embody the biological process of protein folding when sitting on the rug made from the fiber of laboratory llamas and alpacas who are used to produce antibodies for human drugs. Instructions guide visitors to remove shoes and sit cross-legged as a choreographed gesture that embodies the folding of proteins inside a cell’s lumen. Tactile transducers beneath the rug vibrate with the bumps, clicks and bangs of laboratory machines in the soundscape. The fiber for the sculpture was donated by a vivarium at a laboratory whose llamas produce antibodies for human drugs. I hand wash, card and spin the llama fiber into yarn for my textiles sculptures and installations. The work questions notions of the presence and absence of bodies evoking the mutability of categories that delineate their status and renders the elevator as a space for contemplation of the unseen labor of both humans and non-humans within an often-invisible system.

Rhapsody for an Expanded Biotechnological Apparatus is on view at the Tang Teaching Museum through April 10, 2022.

Laura Splan, 2021, “Rhapsody for an Expanded Biotechnological Apparatus”.

Laura Splan, 2021, “Rhapsody for an Expanded Biotechnological Apparatus”.

Laura Splan, 2021, “Rhapsody for an Expanded Biotechnological Apparatus”, Photo by Tang Teaching Museum

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www.laurasplan.com

All images copyright and courtesy of Laura Splan

Further Interalia Magazine articles by Laura Splan –

Biological Imaginings June 2015

Manifest Expressions August 2017

Art, Cellular, Computing, Creativity, Science, Technology, video