‘Exoskeleton, topography of a second skin’ are 2 lightboxes with photographs of the Winogradski experiment. The experiment researches what bacteria can tell us about the soil they live in. Soil samples (a highly diverse micro-ecosystem of soil bacteria and algae) were cultured for several weeks.

Poetry is at the hart of alchemy. Flowers of speech. Microbial Ancestors, fermentation. Every death is a birth and every ending is a beginning. Transmutation. It’s moist and slimy with an acid smell of lively matter.

Since 2015, Anne Marie Maes has been developing organic material by fermenting bacteria and yeasts that leave behind a brownish vegetable leather once removed from their substrate. Expanding, curling, and hardening with the temperature or humidity in the air, these biofilms are called Sensorial Skins to emphasis their living and evolving nature.

The work Pantone Alsace (Reading the Landscape) is emerging from a scanned environment. It takes the form of a Pantone colour chart to present a local chromatic range. After several walks to collect plants and fungi in the Alsace region, pigments were extracted to dye the wool which was then woven to obtain a work that bears witness to the "colourful" richness of the regional landscape, offering us a new way of looking at the world.

A woven topographic view visualizes the ecology of a symbiotic organism. It translates the collaboration between Acetobacter xylinum bacteria and Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast cells. The original Sensorial Skins were grown in a culture of fresh hibiscus tea for the pink, and campèche-colored tea for the orange. The tapestries offer a play of light shining through the lightly woven,

The Large Loom / Le Grand Métier is a custom-built, two-by-two-meter sculpture in brushed metal. It is a perfectly functional weaving loom that is set in motion by the artist at key points during the exhibition at La Kunsthalle, thereby creating a visual portrait of the region.

‘Microbial Life’ focuses on the transformative power of soil bacteria. The installation shows the result of a scientific experiment named ‘Winogradski Columns’. Soil samples (a highly diverse micro-ecosystem of soil bacteria and algae) were cultured for several weeks. The sealed cultures were developing independently over time,

a Bee is a Bee is a Bee: a durational performance for the Palais the Tokyo, Paris. Commissioned by Vittoria Mataresse, in collaboration with Guerlain Paris and supported by CWB|Paris-hors-les-murs.

The video Variation Games is a culmination of the observations carried out between 2017 and 2018 on the community behavior of bees. The images and sound, recorded with an infrared camera and a microphone installed inside the hive, reveal the democratic

a Bee is a Bee is a Bee: a durational performance for the Palais the Tokyo, Paris. Commissioned by Vittoria Mataresse, in collaboration with Guerlain Paris and supported by CWB|Paris-hors-les-murs. At Palais de Tokyo, Anne Marie Maes offers an immersive experience. With an artistic and scientific approach, she transforms the spaces of the Palais into a laboratory.

Early in the morning on the fifth day of the harvest month of August 2021. The beach at Ostend. Bright blue sky. Footprints in a wet sandy beach.

Laminaria is a website documenting and comparing marine ecosystems in Europe. Laminaria operates on the border between sapiens and fauna. It outlines possible futures in a new bio/techno/natural world, a universe that is at once terrestrial and aquatic, a prerequisite for future coexistence.

combining science, fiction and art Early in the morning and late in the evening, between low and high tide, the Theatrum Algarium rises from the sea. Metal frames hold the fluttering weeds.

'Bacterial Mantarey': this organic sculpture builds upon a body of research that focuses on biofilm formation.

‘Disappearance’ focuses on change and temporality. Five plexiglass boxes are filled with lemons and tangerines that are slowly eaten away by bacteria, until nothing is left. In this degradation process, the organic matter progressively transforms and reduces, till the point of disappearance.

The ‘Guerrilla Beehive’ is a sculpture & prototype resulting from a speculative research project. Conceived as a mobile shelter for swarming honeybees, it combines in a radical way smart materials, biomimetic forms and biotechnology.

Poetically representing extensive research into the potential of cyanobacteria and microalgae, L’origine du monde is composed of a metal structure on which glass cells, filled with cyanobacteria, are growing as they were young, sprouting buds on a tree in springtime.

Over a dark metal structure, a soft flow of latex, natural pigments and beeswax mix to create a topographic map. The shapes are reminiscent of the bees’ foraging territory.

A selection of bacterial grown skins, microbial cellulose, in different sizes and thickness. Structures are variable. All colored with 100% naturel vegetal dyes, grown in the Brussels Urban Open Air Lab.

Play with Squares is a floor sculpture composed of organically created textiles. They are arranged on a low wooden plinth, and their warm colours are derived from grasses, herbs, vegetables and fruits I grow in my rooftop garden/open-air laboratory. I use organic debris and natural additives to make these colourfield paintings, which evoke to a tranquil, almost meditative contemplation.

Assemblage made with organic materials. Microbial cellulose skins grown by Acetobacter xylinum and yeast cells, bioplastics with red algae, horse hair. Drawing. Dimensions variable ( 200cm x 120cm)

A project developed for SHARED GARDENS, an exhibition at Magasins Généraux, from June 27 to September 13, in Paris at Pantin on the banks of Ourcq Canal. Focusing on the ecological and social transition, it is aimed at rethinking our ways of living together and our relationship with the environment, starting on a local scale.

The electric green veins running through the bottle are colonies of cyanobacteria. They are slowly evolving and little by little they are colonizing the nutrient gel. They are autotrophe organisms, which means that they provide in their own food. They obtain their energy through oxygenic photosynthesis. They consume CO2 and they release oxygen, similar as plants do.

L’origine du monde is an artistic representation of my research into the possibilities of cyanobacteria and (micro) algae. The installation shows a strongly enlarged bacterial chain made from glass cells. Every cell is filled with cyanobacteria producing realtime photosynthesis.

The work consists of a series of SEM (Scanning Electron Micrographs) printed on Duratrans and presented in lightboxes. The black/white micrographs are mixed with lightboxes in which I present colourful microbial cellulose skins (cellulose fabrics made by bacteria and colored by vegetal dyes).

We have to think about new materials, inspired by nature. We can experiment with a list of raw materials (list without limitation): corn starch, brown sugar, glutinous rice, coconut fibers, hemp, mushroom mycelium, silk, coffee ground, linen, cotton. We can e.g. cut old natural woven carpets with the lasercutter. We can dye raw materials with color extracts from plants as indigo (from the Indigofera tinctoria) or orange from the Calendula officials. We can make hives out of flexible solar panels,...

From the series of Scanning Electron Micrographs: intimate and compelling images on micro-organisms and their (urban) ecosystems, and how these organisms and environments are affected by the era of the anthropocene.

In my practice, the concept of making and producing the (light)sculptures and textiles is as a form of study. The artistic process happens in layers and is linked to the action of subtracting and adding. The concept of scale is very important. The volume of an object and its relationship with nature (micro/macro) are essential elements of my work. The choice of materials is a primary aspect of my artistic research. I always work with natural and organic components, and...

A collection of small sculptures, developed during the research of the Intelligent Guerrilla Beehive project (2016-2019). The objects are presented in clear plexi boxes, each 13cm x 13cm x 13cm, on black or white sand. Each piece is unique. Materials: wax, latex, epoxy, bacteria, organic dyes, electronics, 3D printed PLA, seeds, aquarium sand.

Untitled (green + orange wall textile). This piece is made out of fresh and salt water algae collected at the Venice Lagoon, at the Skibotn Fjörd in Norway and they are mixed with microalgae collected on a city rooftop. The orange textile is made from Tangerine skin peels. The work can be presented with or without backlight.

The project 'Intelligent Guerrilla Beehive 2.0' is researching the renewable energy that can be extracted from algae, to replace the solar panel as an energy source to power the sensors. 
'What if' scenario: the environmental information of the foraging fields around the beehive is collected by the sensors in and around the hive, and its data is stored and processed in the cloud.

Honey bees use caves, rock cavities and hollow trees as natural nesting sites. The nest is composed of multiple honeycombs, parallel to each other, with a relatively uniform bee space. It usually has a single entrance. Western honey bees prefer ...

Untitled (Yellow, a tribute to Eva Hesse) is part of a series of works with bioplastics in different constallations: multiple layers, a range of organic pigments and testing combinations with different non-organic materials as well introduction and development of bacteria on the bioplastic matrix.

The video, filmed in the studio and open air laboratory of AnneMarie Maes, gives an overview of the different elements of the Sensorial Skin-research.

the Guerrilla Beehive 2.0 is a speculative project in which the sensors are powered by a cyanobacterial biofilm. The bacteria grow a dense biofilm on the outer shell of the sustainable beehive. The bees are scanning the health of the environment while foraging. When the bees return to...

From the series of Scanning Electron Micrographs: intimate and compelling images on micro-organisms and their (urban) ecosystems, and how these organisms and environments are affected by the era of the anthropocene.

A selection of bacterial grown skins, microbial cellulose, in different sizes and thickness. Structures are variable. All colored with 100% naturel vegetal dyes, grown in the Brussels Urban Open Air Lab.

In my practice, the concept of making and producing the (light)sculptures and textiles is as a form of study. The artistic process happens in layers and is linked to the action of subtracting and adding. The concept of scale is very important. The volume of an object and its relationship with nature (micro/macro) are essential elements of my work.

This organic sculpture builds upon a body of research that focuses on biofilm formation; it is using the aggregation of bacterial colonies as a metaphore for the communication between a diversity of neighborhoods in cities. The biofilm as a city and the city as a biofilm. A biofilm is an association of micro-organisms in which microbial cells adhere to each other on a living or non-living surface. Biofilm formation is a cooperative group behaviour. The bacteria communicate via quorum sensing

The scientific research of the project Sensorial Skin [for an Intelligent Beehive] focuses on turning the skin into a biosensor. I believe that working with cyanobacteria is a promising path to achieve the objectives regarding the responsive skin, because cyanobacteria are auto-trophe and they can live in colonies and react as such.

I will investigate in how far a living bacterial sculpture can function as a CO2 reducing and oxygen generating object for use inside the home. The development of this object will be based upon my previous work with cyanobacteria, I will implement the knowledge that I gathered during my biotech-project ‘Sensorial Skin’ (development of a pollution sensor).

The Intelligent Guerilla Beehive is a bio-art installation on the edge of art and science. It evokes issues of sustainability and biodiversity, giving viewers an artistic experience of my ongoing research related to the disappearance of the honeybee. Bees are bio-indicators. They reflect the health of their surrounding ecosystem as well...

'Close reading of the Genesis of a Microbial Skin' gives a condensed overview of my notes (relating to the Intelligent Beehives research with a focus on SKIN) between 2012 to 2017. The project is about growing Intelligent Guerilla Beehives from scratch, with living materials - as nature does. Biomimesis is used as a starting point for incubating ecological thinking on matter and form. Different sensorial qualities of microbial and vegetal SKIN are being examined in terms of usefulness for sensing environmental threaths and for monitoring the wellbeing of the bee colonies.

VARIATION GAMES are games where the set of rules is constantly adapted by the players. The bees act as transmitters in an interconnected web of bio-intelligent agents. They construct a bioremedial beehive and create a symbiotic environment for exchange with specific bacteria.

My experiments with smart materials have been brought together under the label 'the Laboratory for Form and Matter'. Here I study the processes by which nature operates and how I can use these processes to create my own intelligent materials. I experiment with a range of organic components and I measure their usability for art installations and design applications.

‘Agency’ is the capacity of an actor to act in a given environment. Since Darwin, it is clear that flowers and bees engage in an evolutionary race. The honeybee is a complex insect with numerous sensorial features which are matching perfectly with the demands of sensual plants.

AnneMarie Maes is a multi-media artist who has been studying the tight interactions and co-evolutions within urban ecosystems. In the open-air lab on the rooftop of her studio, she created an experimental garden and has been keeping bees in self-designed beehives, equipped to bring out hidden structures in the life of the colony. Her “field notes” provide an on-going source of inspiration for her artworks.

In my Laboratory for Form and Matter I work with a range of biotic and abiotic elements. I view my lab as an open environment for experimentation, a space for contradiction, criticism and evaluation. I combine organic components such as vegetal matter, propolis and chitine, with living systems such as fungi and bacteria to create artifacts for the future. My micro-organisms grow biofabrics and I research how these membranes can be enhanced and made...

They are everywhere and they can be perceived as quite the alien intelligence; six-legged, with their numerous eyes, capacities of motion and sensation so different from our own. No wonder science fiction has been inspired by insects. But also other fields, like robotics as well as network design. Insects are more than creepy-crawly bugs;

Sensorial Skin is a series of macro photographs of microbial skins. The skins are grown by Acetobacter xylenum bacteria and yeast cells in a medium of green tea and sugar. The micro-organisms create a subtle biofilm on the growth medium. Once the film is harvested and dried, it feels like a second skin and it has the strength and impermedable properties of leather.

This Portfolio gives an overview of my work from 1997 to 2009. Texts and higher resolution images on demand.

Voice networks and machine aesthetics: a research into synthetic speech combining litterature and philosophical content. A physical network and a virtual network. People and voices. Wireless headphones and 12 spatialized soundsources. People walk their traject through physical (empty) space and as such localisation data are produced. Synthetic voices are generated and frequency and pitch are modulated by the variable parameters of localisation and orientation. The...

In MAHILA, the filmmaker steps between different worlds, going from West to East, from urban to rural surroundings. Her encounters with the experiences and observations of rural Indian women provoke reflection on the process of empowerment. In an artistic ethnography we see and hear how they are using education, technology and politics to redefine their destinies. As we trace the filmmaker’s memories we are taken into questions about story-telling. How are the women fighting to get their stories h...

#01_on women empowerment and creative networks An artistic research project driven by grassroots activism, eco-technology and networks of women to build integrated and sustainable relationships between people, their environment and technology. My interest in the women Solar Engineers and the Mahila Samiti groups for women’s empowerment in Rajasthan comes out of a personal involvement that links art, women empowerment, ecology, technology and social engagement. When I learned about the Barefoot College project, I was struck b...

You can participate in the people database by clicking the tag 'read & contribute'. Choose an avatar, choose a keyword, and drop your story. You can read the stories of other participants by constulting the database 'search the archive'.

"... You can see just a peep of the passage in Looking-Glass House, if you leave the door of the drawing-room wide open: and it's very like our passage as far as you can see, only you know it may be quite different on beyond. Oh, Kitty, how nice it would be if we could only get through into Looking-Glass House! I'm sure it's got, oh! such beautiful things in it!..." (from the complete works of Lewis Carroll - A wonderland of stories, nonsense and wit.)

Closed Circuit # 2 is a sound installation realized on behalf of the Ministry of the Flemish Community in the income hall of the Boudewijn Building in Brussels. By analogy with the iconic image of the clocks in international offices or hotels -displaying the real time of important cities-, the installation presents the real time in the cities of New York, Brussels and Tokyo in the form of their own city sounds. Brussels (0 hours), New York (-6 hours), and Tokyo (+8 hours) give together a lapse of twenty-four hours....