Shane Rucker, GFA MAT, 2026
Lover of Science and Art
Project Overview
Do you remember carving little love hearts into a tree when you were younger? This is like that, except it’s carved out of inanimate material and then life is added into the wound. In this case, the flesh-like quality of the agar and red pigment of the Ecoli give it the feeling of a bloody wound.
For this project, I tried and failed at a few different half-baked ideas. I get caught up, a lot of times, on trying to execute a vision I have in my mind for an artwork. I feel the need to do something intricate, clean, and professional.
After numerous failures and setbacks, I decided to care a little less about getting the bacteria to do what I wanted and went with something more intuitive.
This piece to me is about letting go of control and having fun. I think it’s a little pop art, and a little angsty romantic, maybe some punk influence. IDK what else to say really. It’s good to get frustrated sometimes. After you try and fail a bunch it feels good to let go.
Process
Initially, I started with Black Agar Plates containing KIX antibiotics. I applied our CRISPR edited EColi which produces a white-ish color when they reproduce. I tried 3 application techniques to determine what approach I would use in the final design. For each plate, I used steril toothpicks as my applicator.
On the first plate I used a stippling technique while also slightly puncturing the surface with each poke (stick-n-poke).
On plate number 2 I stippled without puncturing the surface.
And on plate 3 I simply drew lightly using the toothpick as a paint brush.
All three of these attempts had unsatisfactory results. Plates 1 and 2 saw the least growth and plate 3 only grew on about 50% of the applied surface. This failure could’ve been the result of not aspirating my Bacteria culture enough before application. It could’ve also been a human error in the antibiotic addition to the plate. I’m not entirely certain. I attempted a second set of test plates, this time with better aspirated cells and saw an increase in growth, but still around 60% – 70% the coverage I expected.
By the time I came in for the 3rd round of testing my plates had become contaminated and I had to use leftover test plates with regular agar and an antibiotic mixture suited to the red protein-producing Ecoli. For these plates I carved out divets in the agar using a sterile scalpel and pipetted 10u droplets of the bacteria culture into the divets.
Learn More
I might make these images into stickers or magnets so follow me on IG @shanerucker