The Contamination of Alice # 8
The Contamination of Alice: Instance #8 (2014) is part of Svenja Kratz's series, The Absence of Alice, which explores biotechnologies through the Saos-2 cell line, derived from the bone cancer lesion of an 11-year-old girl named Alice in 1973.
The work examines the unsettling nature of these cells as living remnants of a human who has likely passed, emphasising their paradoxical existence: though separated from Alice's body, the cells continue to grow, mutate, and respond dynamically to environmental changes, far surpassing the mass of Alice's original body. Despite evolving into something increasingly "other," these cells remain bound to Alice through their shared DNA, embodying an ongoing process of transformation that comments on identity, absence, and the deep, uncanny ties between organisms, the living and the departed.
The Contamination of Alice: #8 was commissioned for Experimenta Recharge.
PROJECT DETAILS:
Svenja Kratz, Mixed Media: plaster, glass, steel, MDF, diffused LED lighting, Raspberry Pi micro computer, Agar-agar, nutrients, Saos-2 cells DNA, perspex, sand, mini projector, video, audio.
The Contamination of Alice #8 was developed in a creative partnership between the Creative Industries Faculty and The Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane. The custom projection system and Agar housing components were developed in collaboration with microelectronics engineer Michael Maggs. Sound design was developed in collaboration with Carly Mitchell (Anise).
