<Invisible/Invincible: The Bacteria Survival Guide>는 예술과 과학의 협업을 지원하는 시카고대학의 예술, 과학+문화 협업기금을 받아 진행한 프로젝트로, 우리 주변에 존재하지만 보이지 않는 미생물이 어떻게 다양한 환경에서 생존하는 지 연구하고, 이를 가시화하며, 동시에 그와 관련된 사적인 서사를 수집하는 프로젝트다.
Bacteria form the living infrastructure of our world: they perform invisible roles in maintaining, defending, cycling our soils, oceans, and bodies. They are single-cell microorganisms present in various habitats on Earth such as the soil, water, acidic hot springs, and arctic environments. The survival of the bacterium in its natural habitat depends on its structural and molecular defenses against adverse conditions. In Invisible/Invincible, Joo Young Lee (MFA candidate, Sculpture, SAIC), Mirae Lee (PhD student, Microbiology, UChicago), and Maggie Zhang (PhD student, Microbiology, UChicago) will investigate the survival strategies of microbes and produce microscopic portraits and narratives to investigate what we can learn from the survival strategies of microbes. As women of color, Joo Young, Mirae, and Maggie have found themselves empathizing with the impact and resilience of microbes. Focusing on both invisibility and resilience of microbes, the collaboration seeks to reconsider the act of seeing and the way it affects the understanding of our place in the surrounding world.
