Fragmented Observations (At the Early Stage of Infection)

Primal Urges

Like all life on earth viruses are driven by a desire to survive, this can be ensured by processes of reproduction and avoidance and they have developed incredibly sophisticated methods of ensuring these basic needs are met. Viruses have evolved over hundreds of millions of years - they are parasitic, not symbiotic - they can survive in various ways outside of the cell, though this is where they want to be. Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) will become latent following infection, however, once the virus is embedded you have 'a friend for life'. Only becoming active again when the immune system displays signs of being lowered - perhaps a trigger, such is the case with Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV), another member of the Herpes family of viruses studied at the unit. Could this be seen as an attempt to flee, understanding the need to move on to a new, healthier host?

Hostile Takeover - In Vivo

Once viruses enter the cell their main aim is to replicate, some need to enter the nucleus to achieve this, such as HSV, some can complete this process in the cytoplasm of the cell such as HCV. They utilise most, if not all of the structures and processes within the cell to achieve their aim, the prognosis for the infected cell is not good. The process that is generally referred to as replication includes many stages - negotiations and appropriations - of the cells natural function but can be broken down into 3 main categories: entry, assembly and egress. Within this there are many further processes and strategies employed by different viruses: attachment, internalisaton, endocytosis, nuclear targeting, transcription, translation, genome replication, genome packaging, exocytosis and cell-to-cell spread.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) gains entry into liver cells using naturally occurring lipid particles inside of the body as a Trojan horse, tricking the cell to gain entry.

Following entry into the cell HCMV releases a 'first line' of proteins specifically designed to combat the cells primitive defenses to infection. The infected cell will try to warn neighbouring cells of the impending danger, HCMV is also capable of targeting the natural interferonproduced to carry out this early warning system.

Maximum Efficiency - The Highest Order

Like all complex cellular life, viruses have a rich evolutionary history, viruses studied at the unit cause human disease and can be classified into two main groups: DNA viruses and RNA viruses. Certain strains being traced back hundred of millions of years and having ancestors who have successfully infected many different species, HSV is one such virus. The HSV virus genome was successfully sequenced at the Virology Unit in Glasgow in the late 80's, it is a large, DNA virus that replicates in the nucleus of the cell. During this process new protein shells (capsids) must be created, which must then be filled with the newly replicated DNA strands. This process is called packaging. HSV replicates long strands of DNA calledconcatemers, which contain multiple copies of the same complete genome sequence joined together in a head to tail arrangement. During packaging this genetic information must be inserted into the procapsid (capsid before inclusion of DNA) and cleaved up into complete single genome strands. An incredibly powerful molecular motor forces the negatively charged particles arranged along the DNA strand inside the capsid through the portal - it is unclear how this system functions. The DNA is subsequently arranged within the capsid in such a way that it is filled to capacity. The resultant pressure caused by large quantities of negatively charged particles in close proximity is said to be equivalent to the pressure within 10 bottles of champagne.

Accident / Design

It is difficult to describe viral activity and characteristics without anthropomorphising, and this makes it somewhat difficult to think of viruses without these analogies. There is a history of debate on this issue which centre around the definition of life. Theoretically viruses may have developed concomitantly with cellular life on earth, their are theories that at this early stage things were not so clean cut. Lending strength to this simultaneous evolutionary theory is clearly identified presence of latent Retro Virus DNA embedded within the human genome. Do we have a viral predisposition? There is another evolutionary theory which talks of a 'RNA world' as the possible origins of life and the predecessor to our DNA based existence. It is speculated that RNA viruses such as HCV could be the ancient remnants of such a world.

During my first week in the unit viruses have been described to me in terms of having: needs, desires, specific familial behaviours and preemptive and defensive strategies for evasion and recognition. Obviously, there is an element of attempting to communicate very complex ideas in a way that is understandable - is there something more to this? As a positive sense RNA virus HCV is able to replicate very quickly upon entry into the cells cytoplasm, but it has an inability to proofread as it replicates leading to a high level of mutation in its progeny. This inability could be viewed as a defect in the nonstructural RNA, it could also be viewed as a highly evolved and amazingly effective viral defence mechanism - a viral intelligence? As in all scientific research, a lot is still unknown in Virology, residing in the realm of theory and speculation. It was mentioned to me that the most effective viruses are probably the ones that we don't know about. Indeed, it is in the viruses best interest to co-exist with their host, viruses that produce a rapid and wide-spread mortality are not doing themselves any favours. Is there a possibility of coexistence?

Navigating and Processing

Now that a few days in the unit have passed, processing the information is becoming a bit easier - the language is becoming clearer. Each meeting has yielded a whole new set of considerations and possible avenues for further exploration.

I do not want to use this blog to to simply relay large amounts of scientific text - I will point to places where this information can be found - what I hope to do is attempt to interpret the information. I will be posting scientific imagery gathered using different types of microscopy (confocal and electron) and images from reinterpretation of virus structure at varying levels.

Below is a list of the scientists, researchers and PhD students that I have met in the unit so far, I will continue to add to this as my time there progresses. I have grouped them by the virus they are currently studying, or the field of research.

Hepatitis C Virus (HCV):

John McLauchlan
Arvind Patel

Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV):

Valerie Preston
Nigel Stow
Maureen O'Hara
Walt Adamson
Duncan McGeoch
Frazer Rixon
Roger Everett

Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV):

Derrick Dargan
Chris Preston

Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV):

Gaie Brown
Vanessa Cowton
Jim Aitken

Virus Structure:

David Bhella
Colin Loney
Rebecca Pink
Worawit Suphamungmee

Computational analysis:

Derek Gatherer

Orientation

The first day in the unit left my head full without any room to process...

Preempting my arrival David circulated an email to each of the research areas within the unit to schedule first contact... Making sure everyone knew who I was and what I was up to meant that my first few days were going to be quite hectic.

There is an element of apprehension involved in meeting someone for the first time. The expectation of a necessary period of time dedicated to developing of a shared language. I find this process at the beginning of a new project very interesting, like planting seeds, there is a very particular excitement about the possibility of growth - a temporary clarity can emerge. However, this clarity brings with it the knowledge that it will probably be lost and found again many times along the way before germination.

Beauty and Destruction

I am about to start a residency with the Medical Research Council (MRC) Virology Unit in Glasgow and the Glasgow Science Centre. I am very excited about this opportunity and leave on Sunday for an initial phase which has been funded by the MRC. I will be working with Dr David Bhella, the units structural biologist. I intend to keep a separate blog - Beauty and Destruction - to document the residency and the following work.

Fear of the Unknown

At this point I know very little about viruses - I want to make this clear - if I'm a little bit off the mark scientifically speaking please bear this in mind. However, based on what little I do know - have read in newspapers articles, in New Scientist or the heavy books I have bought but not yet managed to fully get into - I find them fascinating. I am not sure where this fascination comes from, perhaps they spark an interest because of the inherent duality in their nature - with potentially destructive capabilities polarised by an innate beauty and possible role as healers in gene therapy. Perhaps because of the debate as to whether or not viruses should be classified as living organisms. This uncertainty in itself is fascinating and brings up a lot of questions about existence and belief. Perhaps it is simpler than this, perhaps it is a fear of the unknown. Having to place belief in science that there is another world all around us existing out of sight, a world of highly ordered, exquisitely symmetrical organisms, deadly in their simplicity. If viruses are the greatest threat to humankind in the 21st century surely we should know our enemy?

I will be working with structural biologist Dr David Bhella at the Medical Research Council's Virology Unit in Glasgow and with the Glasgow Science Centre during this initial 2-week period starting on the 8th December. This 2-week period has been funded by the Medical Research Council.

Chimera

Chimera 2008, Iroko hardwood, MDF, Perspex, brass fastenings, 24" LCD monitor, computer equipment and HD video (22 min, 40 sec), 103 x 65 x 52 cm

Specimen case by Mark Burns and Tony Wiles

Grimmer&Steele Trust - Sessions at Proximity Effect

Images from sessions at Proximity Effect, Plymouth Arts Centre - November 2008

Grimmer&Steele Trust meet a Care Package User in Plymouth Arts Centre ready for their Personalised Care Package:





The Personalised Care Package treatment room:

Grimmer&Steele Trust - Sessions at Proximity Effect, Plymouth Arts Centre

Are you a victim of your own over complicated emotional life?

The Grimmer & Steele Trust can help to provide you with a remedy.

We specialise in care enforcement, and can offer you a free perceptual augmentation session with the Trusts well-balanced carers. The session will provide you with a positive personalised package of sensory respite and reaffirmation - designed with you in mind.

Make yourself comfortable, relax and watch this...

Transhumation - Dulverton Town Hall

Transhumation 2008, Powder coated aluminium, digital image printed on acrylic opal, LED's, 200 x 200 cm

These images show the installation of the work at Dulverton Village Hall on Exmoor National Park for the Triparks preview event, Thursday 15th - Sunday 18th October. During the installation and preview period the work attracted a lot of attention from local residents, and I hear was even discussed at the writing group who meet weekly in the space. Due to this interest in the work it has been able to remain there until the main body of the Triparks tour begins next spring on Dartmoor.

The work initiated many interesting conversations, a lot of which revolved around individual spiritual readings and similarities in construction of the image to that of a rose window, a feature of church architecture. Someone commented that the work resembled Hindu or Buddhist mandala's and had similar meditative qualities, I found this very interesting. We talked about how the work was difficult to understand as a whole without understanding it's individual components, and how the eye was constantly pulled back and forth across its surface.

Proximity Effect - The Grimmer & Steele Trust will help you to feel good about you!

Press Release -

29 November 2008 – 11 January 2009

You are invited to the opening event
Friday 28 November, 6.30–8.30pm
The exhibition opens with demanding performance by Leo Devlin curated by Red Ape, arm wrestling by Ray White and a performance by guests the Grimmer & Steele Trust, heralding the start of this daring programme.
ArtsMatrix and Plymouth Arts Centre are also supporting three artist-led projects in the city of Plymouth: Pilot, U:1 studios and new work by Café Concrete.

Exhibition
29 November 2008 – 11 January 2009
A series of performances, installations, videos and live music by visual artists from the city of Plymouth. The group is brought together for the first time, each with their own individual practice and curatorial experience, to consider the effect of their proximity to the city and each other.

Low Profile embark on a marathon performance: watching the entire 1st series of hit 1980s TV show MacGyver, back-to-back, cataloguing numerous ways of saving the day: rolling under doors, escaping burning buildings and fooling the guards.

Rooting contemporary music to locality and heritage, onec have invited bands and musicians to interpret songs of the sea for a compilation LP. Ray White creates an arm-wrestling forum in the galleries, alongside a relaxation room by the Grimmer & Steele Trust. Nick Grew, in collaboration with Heidi C Morstang, presents a new films, Grain Silo, featuring the erstwhile relic of Plymouth’s skyline. Marianne Torrance continues her research with people who share her passion for ecology, exploring art and marine science collaborations, in partnership with the Marine Biological Association and Plymouth City Council. Red Ape is an enquiry into the relationship between language and live performance. Curated by Mark Greenwood, the project explores issues around male identity and anxieties.

Curator Paula Orrell explains: "We have offered a selected group of artists the opportunity to curate/develop an exhibition in collaboration with Plymouth Arts Centre. The objective is to develop a critical space for the artists to examine their own context and offer up a broader understanding of their work. It encourages exchange and development of links between artists in the region, country and beyond, considering the current climate of the visual arts and the development of audience and profile within the city of Plymouth."

Chimera - Hybrid Specimen 1

The 5 body-landscape hybrids shown here as separate cycles and clips are combined to form the video component of Chimera (22 min. 40 secs.). The cycles follow the order indicated here on a continuous loop within the specimen case shown below. For the purposes of the blog they have been separated.

Time-lapse footage of cellular mitosis used with the kind permission of Susana Abreu Ribeiro at The Earnshaw Group, The Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, Edinburgh

Chimera - Hybrid Specimen 2

Time-lapse footage of cellular mitosis used with the kind permission of Alexey Khodjakov, Wadsworth Center, Albany, New York

Chimera - Hybrid Specimen 3 (clip)

Time-lapse footage of cellular mitosis - interphase used with the knid permission of Dr. Yuko Mimori-Kiyosue on behalf of Shoichiro Tsukita

Chimera - Hybrid Specimen 4

Time-lapse footage of cellular mitosis used with the kind permission of John Daum & Gary J Gorbsky

Chimera - Hybrid Specimen 5

Time-lapse footage of cellular apoptosis used with the kind permission of Susana Abreu Ribeiro at the Earnshaw Group, The Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, Edinburgh

Chimera - Specimen Case

Chimera specimen case constructed by Mark Burns (Burnie) and Tony Wiles, dimensions - 900 x 600 x 400 cm, constructed using Iroko hardwood, Perspex, brass fastenings, 24" LCD monitor and computer equipment.

This design had to be slightly modified by shortening the legs for the final piece.

Chimera - Production Stills

Transhumation - detail

Up the Hill Backwards

Northumberland National Park is home to some of the most remote, uninterrupted, and unpopulated areas of land in the UK. It is a threshold space, a geographical and psychological borderland with a completely unique identity; it is a place of unquestionable beauty. My time in the park was largely spent alone, a sort of solitary release. The vast expanse of the landscape offers a rare opportunity, a time for silent introspection, a feeling of weight and weightlessness, perhaps a glimpse of your own mortality. It is something to do with space, the distant horizon and the big skies; you cannot help but ponder scale, your own existence and the connection you have to what is around you right now. The land seems to whisper to you…

The work I produced during my time in, on and with Northumberland National Park grew from a temporary symbiosis, from a relationship that began more like an infection - my own body as the foreign agent. Negotiating a relationship with the landscape takes time, and as certain systems and processes start to become clear, latent internal conflict becomes visible. It seems there are endless contradictions, a push and pull of opposites: timelessness and dynamism, natural order and the order imposed by man, to name a few. However, these opposites are held in perfect equilibrium, a balance between wilderness and control, an understanding that has developed through years of co-existence. Preservation of this delicate balance is explored in the works Chimera and Transhumation.

There is a profound relationship between the landscape and the body that transcends a singular definition. A hybrid of mythological, philosophical, scientific and spiritual connections must be considered. As my time in the park passed some of these connections were consolidated into a visual language of shared sets - bone and rock, layers that settle, cycles that blend together through time becoming part of a unified and balanced system. I explored the parks archaeological history as a way to communicate these connections, using traces of the body as source material. Though intact examples of human remains are rarely found in the park due to acidic soils I was able to work with archaeologists to examine human bones excavated from similar burial sites in the UK. Bones often ravaged by disease causing premature death or physical deformity, bones respectfully returned to the Earth which once provided life, completing a cycle. Working with scientists at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology and the Centre for Life, further traces of the body were collected. I was able to study time-lapse footage of human and animal cell cycles, in essence, existence expressed in its most universal terms. A highly ordered symmetry of process shared by all living organisms within the park, an order that represents everything we endlessly struggle to control and are helplessly at the mercy of.

Acknowledgements:

I would like to thank: Dr William Earnshaw and the Earnshaw Research Group at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology (Edinburgh) and Professor Charlotte Roberts (Durham University) for their contribution. I would also like to thank The Centre for Life (Newcastle upon Tyne), The Institute of Design Innovation (Middlesbrough), and the Northumberland National Park Authority for their support. Individual footage credits for Chimera: John Daum and Gary Gorbsky, Alexey Khodjakov, Susana Abreu Ribeiro, Shoichiro Tsukita and Yuko Mimori-Kiyosue.

Triparks Sneak Preview

Transhumation

Transhumation 2008, Powder coated aluminium, digital image printed on acrylic opal, LED's, 200 x 200 cm

Transhumation - composition detail

Haematoma Supernova

Interference

A quick update on the progression of ideas for the Triparks residency, more information on the blog.

I have been exploring the similarities between the body and the landscape, looking at thresholds and boundaries in particular. I am interested in the idea of the landscape as a
timeless wilderness and the body's transience within this landscape. Viewing the body as a viral agent, attempting to infect, affect, manipulate or assert control over the landscape. I have also been thinking about ideas of isolation and (personal) space, with areas of the national park being amongst the most remote in England.

With the video work I want to locate some of the most remote areas of the park and shoot some footage there. I want to capture some really slow 360 degree panoramic landscape shots, so you can hardly notice the landscape moving or changing. I might film in HD as the landscape itself is so finely detailed. Alongside this I want to capture or sample scientific footage of the body, both internal and external, perhaps looking at bruising, fingerprints, sperm, viruses. What I plan to do is introduce these bodily elements into the landscape in various ways as if they are faults in the film - lens flares, distortions or interruptions, quite pronounced but
abstract.

Nano Agent Healing Neuron

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-2Xw-GNkUQ

Virus Structure

http://www.mrcvu.gla.ac.uk/research/bhellad/virus_structure.htm

Viral Portrait

Viral Portrait (manipulated digital image, 2008)

This is the first image produced from a body of works entitled Dark Matter. The works incorporate digitally manipulated external bodily features re-appropriated to create fictional micro/macro organisms. Using medical points of reference to create a visual distraction from the unnatural construction of the image. The images in the series are based around studies of viruses, bacteria and nano agents, things which are invisible to the naked eye, so small that they are almost incomprehensible. Organisms which are specifically engineered, either by nature or by man to infect or heal, damage or repair at a cellular level.

Triparks Residency

I am currently working as artist in residence in Northumberland National Park and have been contributing to a blog to fully document this period of work but will also add key information to this blog.

Triparks

a project of Aune Head Arts
with Somerset Art Week and Allenheads Contemporary Arts

Rural communities are re-making and re-defining themselves in ways that challenge many fundamentals about life in the countryside. Traditional agriculture is under threat of extinction, while small specialist food producers thrive and take back the means of distributing their produce. This is a period of destruction and re-building that leaves many voices unheard and villages and communities feeling vulnerable and uncertain about their futures.

Art can rarely solve these issues, but it can highlight them. Six artists will spend several weeks in the parks from which they will develop a series of artworks reflecting some aspect(s) of the places and lives they encounter. Artists are chosen not only for the quality of their work but for their ability to work engagingly and sensitively with people and with communities. This project is unique in looking at three diverse rural places, defined by political boundaries. Each place is distinctive, and the project will open a window on the differences and similarities of working and living within a protected landscape.

Grimmer & Steele Trust

"We provide perceptual augmentation and sensory respite for individuals engaged in the appreciation of the arts. Operating on the periphery of ‘actual’ events to respond to moments of panic, dislocation and apathy. Our aim is to re-open the eyes through nurturing, care and convalescence."

Grimmer & Steele Trust

I have been collaborating wth visual artist Francesca Steele since February this year on a project based around ideas of care and convalescence. The work has developed through a series of process based performance experiments, at NRLA, Glasgow MAP live, Carlisle and Arnolfini, Bristol. We have just had some photographs taken at Waygood Gallery and Studios by Ian Clarke and have come up with the name 'Grimmer & Steele Trust' for our collaboration. The work aims to operate somewhere at the point where genuine care becomes a vulgar display, anaesthetising the viewer but also provoking feelings of disquiet. We are interested in exploring: rehab, group and individual therapies, religion and cults, self-help and hypnotherapy and have begun wearing red uniforms as a trademark.

Performance Etiquette

Etiquette (one-to-one performance, 2008)

This shows the original plan for performance set up and an image of the actual set up captured at the Performance Time Festival. A 9 day festival of live art hosted by an organisation based in Istanbul, Turkey called GalataPerform. The work was performed in March this year as part of a group exchange organised by performance artist Carole Luby. The exchange was funded by Arts Council England, North East.

The work manipulates a very simple set of performative codes of conduct to consider structured interaction. I was interested in setting up a situation where the usual performer/spectator relationship, and the balance of power shifted. Considering the formally accepted etiquette of clapping - often completely inappropriately - at the end of a performance or piece of live art. Someone mentioned to me that clapping at the end of a performance originated in some cultures as a way to ward off evil spirits, as though silence itself was a dangerous thing. This has interesting comparisons in our culture, as silence, is something a lot of people have a problem with. Silence when in company is reserved for your very closest friends and family members. Maybe we use clapping in performance in similar ways, to mask ‘uncomfortable’ silence, perhaps to chase away our personal demons, make ourselves feel better or feel accepted, feel like part of an understanding group. Maybe we are simply playing our role as the viewer.

Interestingly enough I was able to chat informally with many of the Turkish people who had participated in the work immediately afterward. It transpired that the cultural differences between Turkey and the UK had completely altered the reading of the work. Though I had always been aware that the work would be a slightly uncomfortable experience for the viewer and myself I had not expected what actually happened. I have used the word 'interrogation' before to describe the primary focus or intended area of study within the work. However, the Turkish police force and their methods of questioning obviously charge the word with much greater significance for the Turkish people. Many of the individuals who I spoke to recounted very strong feelings of fear, all caught up with the idea of being interrogated by the police. Apparently in Turkey, questioning (interrogation) can happen randomly and was described as being almost like torture. Feedback was translated to me from a Turkish girl who said she had always dreamed of being in the spotlight, up on stage performing, but when the work placed her in this position all she felt was panic and discomfort.

Viral and cellular body

Viral (Body)

Cellular (Body)

Viral (Body) (detail)

Cellular (Body) (detail)

I am currently working on a series of digital images capturing disembodied fragments of the external body, particularly the hands, and manipulating them to create hybridised images which appear to replicate internal bodily landscapes, cells and viruses in particular.

Video and istallation Work 2004 - 2007

Tenderness (digital video, 2004)



Negotiation 1 (single screen digital video installation, 2004)




33.3 (multi-screen digital video installation, 2005)

The Rules of Engagement (digital video, 2006)

Yours, Sincerely (digital video, 2007)