(B)OTHERING - explorations in a white lab coat

Feeling the wet algae with your hands and having situated encounters at the river and in the darkroom are in juxtaposition to the sterile, analytical laboratory environment of the academia. Marked by institutional hierarchies where interaction between humans and more-than-human organisms is limited by strict norms, meticulous analyses are conducted here that test the creatures' way of life.

 

At second glance, this work also seems much less hypothesis-driven than initially thought. Even here coincidence and makeshift play an important role. Not always exclusively theory-guided and reproducible, a certain similarity between laboratory work and design can be found. Especially this area between the laboratory as sterile space and experimental field opens up for the integration of a biology laboratory into this work. Along with the surrounding ecosystem and the 'design laboratories', the scientific institute thus becomes a third pillar in the cognitive process. Through introductory training and numerous briefings, the author obtains access to spaces that remain out of the public eye and she develops her own experiments in order to understand what appreciative collaboration can look like in this scientific setting and whether it already exists.

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Some algae, have the special ability of biosorption. For example, the microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is capable of adsorbing metals that pollute water such as chromium, cadmium or lead and thus filtering the water. While observing the laboratory research, tests and experiments, I wondered whether the alga could also extract dissolved silver and bromide from used photo developers and fixers. The solutions could therefore be used for a longer period of time and at the same time discarded in an ecologically acceptable way. It may even allow silver extraction for other uses.