The Soup of Life

English

27-10-2014

(l-r) Dr. Omer Markovitch and Eran Hadas
 
Visitors to a recent Tel Aviv art exhibit found themselves in an interactive “lab” in which three containers held the “raw materials of life” in three primary colors: red, green and blue. The hand pumps on the containers led, through hoses, to a covered, steaming pot, in which the primitive “soup of life” simmered.
 
That lofty, but oh-so-human, ambition – to create life out of inanimate matter – is at the heart of this installation, recently exhibited in the Midrasha Gallery in Tel Aviv. The Soup of Life – the result of collaboration between former Weizmann Institute research student Dr. Omer Markovitch and artist/poet Eran Hadas – was included in the group exhibition HeLa – Forms of Human Existence, curated by Daniel Landau and Udi Edelman.    
 
 
pump
 
The process bubbling away inside the pot was projected onto a wall above. When one worked the different pump handles, colored “molecules” entered the frame, chasing one another and swirling around the space, until they began to coalesce, forming complex, multicolored spheres. At some point, the spheres split apart into daughter spheres – the “first generation” – and these grew and split in turn, leading to an entire lineage of spheres. This process – a sort of evolution of the spheres – could be controlled by regulating the flow of the three colors into the soup pot.
 
Though Earth’s first living cells were not likely to have been so colorful, the process portrayed in the installation is largely based on a theory of the origin of life that has been developed over the course of many years in the group of Prof. Doron Lancet of the Weizmann Institute’s Molecular Genetics Department, according to which life arose through the evolution of fat-like molecules. Markovitch, who is currently conducting postdoctoral research at Newcastle University in the UK, intends to continue working on avenues of research that arise from this theory.  
Dr. Omer Markovitch
 
The idea of an installation based on this theory had resonated with Hadas, whose work primarily deals with the borderlines between technology and poetry. The installation theme resonated, in turn, with the lofty aim of the exhibit: to probe the fact of human existence and the concept of “humanity” – a concept that is changing with new technologies that are redefining the interface between human and machine. Within this context, the low-tech design of The Soup of Life installation was meant to create a user-friendly setup that would distance itself from the sterile, alienating image of stereotypical futuristic, science-based works. This choice is a subtle wink to the viewer – a hint that the possibility of creating life from inanimate matter is really an intellectual exercise, one that is not truly dependent on technological progress.
 
 
 
 

 

(l-r) Dr. Omer Markovitch and Eran Hadas
English

Seeing the Unseen

English

 

Invisible Coral Flows, the winning photography entry

 
Corals are far from the “living rocks” they are sometimes taken to be. Invisible Coral Flows, which won first place in the photography category of the 2013 Science/National Science Foundation International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge, captures the unseen flow generated by small hairs – cilia – covering the surface of a reef-building coral. The lines of flow reveal a previously unknown way in which the coral actively draws in nutrients and sweeps away waste products from the colony surface. The image was featured on the cover of Science, February 7, 2014.

It was created through an ongoing collaboration between Dr. Assaf Vardi of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Plant Sciences Department and Prof. Roman Stocker of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This research was funded by a grant from the Human Frontiers Science Program (HFSP).

To highlight the flow, Dr. Orr Shapiro of Vardi’s group – at the time a guest of Stocker’s group – and Dr. Vicente Fernandez of the Stocker lab used video microscopy to track particles in the water next to the coral surface. After recording two short videos 90 minutes apart and superimposing the successive frames from each video, they overlaid the resulting images to create the final composition. Artist considerations had a role as well: Drawing inspiration from Andy Warhol’s striking palette, the scientists used false color to help visualize the system. Pink represents the position of two coral polyps (Pocillopora damicornis) that were roughly 3 millimeters apart at the start of the video; purple represents their changed position at a later time; and gold and cyan highlight the flow patterns at the two time points, respectively. The spacing between points in the tracks represents different particle speeds, revealing where the flow is strongest in the vortex.

The image of the particle trajectories – not only rich in visual texture and form, but also in the amount of information they convey – made this photo a unanimous winner according to the judges.

“The image captures the beauty of coral-generated flows and epitomizes our discovery of their dramatic role in mass transport. Our finding has changed the way we think of corals – from passive entities dependent upon external flows, to active engineers of their own microenvironment,” says Shapiro. This new discovery has direct impacts on our understanding of corals’ physiology and their potential ability to cope with changes in their environment.
 
Dr. Assaf Vardi's research is supported by Charles Rothschild, Brazil; Roberto and Renata Ruhman, Brazil; Luis Stuhlberger, Brazil; the Lord Sieff of Brimpton Memorial Fund; the European Research Council; and the estate of Samuel and Alwyn J. Weber. Dr. Vardi is the incumbent of the Edith and Nathan Goldenberg Career Development Chair.


 
 
Invisible Coral Flows, the winning photography entry
Environment
English

Intersections: Science in Contemporary Art

English

An exhibition of 34 international artists at the Weizmann Institute of Science

September 22 – December 7, 2012
David Lopatie Conference Centre, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot
Entry free – by appointment


Tomas Saraceno, Spencer Finch, Conrad Shawcross, Mat Collishaw, Michal Rovner, Ori Gersht, Troika, Karen Russo and other artists will display their work in the David Lopatie Conference Centre, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, including paintings, kinetic sculpture, photography, video and new media


Meeting points between science and art are the subject of the exhibit Intersections – Science in Contemporary Art that will be shown in the David Lopatie Conference Centre at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Included are 60 works by 34 artists from around the world; each investigates various aspects of science, theory and technology: genetics, alternative energy, research into the nature of the universe and more. By looking at these subjects from “outside the box,” these aesthetic works of art cause us to reflect on science and its relationship to the world.

The artists: Roger Ackling, Maya Attoun, Edward Burtynsky, Daniel Canogar, Susan Collins, Mat Collishaw, Susan Derges, Jacqueline Donachie, Garry Fabian Millar, Spencer Finch, Jem Finer, Peter Fraser, Ori Gersht, Scarlett Hooft-Graafland, Barnaby Hosking, Walter Hugo, Luke Jerram, Eduardo Kac, Lilliane Lijn, Alastair Mackie, Edgar Martins, Anne-Mie Melis, Vincent Mock, David Rickard, Michal Rovner, Karen Russo, Tomer Sapir, Tomas Saraceno, Conrad Shawcross, Suzanne Treister, Troika, Alison Turnbull, Clara Ursitti, Jorinde Voigt and Douglas White.
 
 
Spencer Finch, Studio window (INFRARED, JANUARY, 25 2012, MORNING EFFECT) 2012 oil, pastel on paper, 4 drawings

 

 
 


The curators: Cathy Wills and Carolyne Drake

Cathy Wills is a collector and curator living in London. Previously Cathy had a contemporary gallery in London, and she was a founding board member of Cornerhouse Art Centre in Manchester for 20 years. Currently she is active in a number of art institutes as a trustee of the Contemporary Art Society, where she heads the Acquisitions Committee and Sculpture Fund, and as a board member of the Contemporary Circle of the Royal Academy of Arts. Cathy also acts as curator for the annual auction held in aid of the British Friends of the Israel Museum and advises on contemporary art in various capacities.

Carolyn Drake is a curator living in London. She is currently completing a MFA in curating at Goldsmiths, University of London. In parallel, she is working on a group exhibit for the 30th Sao Paolo Biennial.

The Weizmann Institute of Science is one of the world’s leading multidisciplinary basic research institutions in the natural and exact sciences. The Institute has five faculties – Mathematics and Computer Science, Physics, Chemistry, Biochemistry and Biology. To these are added the Feinberg Graduate School, the university arm of the Institute, the Science Teaching Department and the Davidson Institute of Science Education, which operates the educational activities of the Institute for students, teachers and the general public.
 
The artists' visit is supported by the British Israeli Training Scheme (BI ARTS), a cooperative initiative of the British Council, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Culture and Sport.
 

Maya Attoun, Perpetuum Mobile, 2010, Pencil and oil on paper

 

 


Entry free, by appointment

 
 
To visit the exhibit, please call ahead: 08-934-4499
The exhibition will be closed Fridays, Saturdays and holidays
 
 
For media information and photos: Weizmann Institute Publications and Media Relations Department: 08-934-3856, news@weizmann.ac.il
 

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Spencer Finch, Studio window (INFRARED, JANUARY, 25 2012, MORNING EFFECT) 2012 oil, pastel on paper, 4 drawings
English