Bio-tracking Walk is an exhibition based on the use of mobile phones and GPS-technology, first and foremost via the new downloadable smartphone software called socialight (http://socialight.com/). Amongst other things, socialight enables the placement of virtual sticky notes.
The creator of Bio-tracking walk, Anna Dumitriu, took swab samples of bacteria from various locations in Brighton and mapped these locations using the socialight software. This made it possible for visitors to walk around to the mentioned locations, receiving specially created sound files and images directly to their mobile phones. The images received were a visualization of the invisible, or to be more accurate – digital micrographs, meaning digitally enhanced pictures of bacteria. The sound files were soundworks created by Luciana Haill, Ian Helliwell, Ollie Glass and Juliet Kac to accompany the images. Additionally, the microbiologist John Paul wrote actual scientific texts about the microbes found on the swab samples.
The artwork puts emphases on the things we cannot see, but know exist. The unorthodox combination of microbiology and mobile technology creates a space were we can experience a side of reality that is usually hidden from the human perceptional senses. Also, as said on http://transition.turbulence.org/networked_music_review/2007/06/08/bio-tracking/: “By bringing in the use of GPS in the initial creation of the work, mapping the locations where the microbiological swabs were taken, the work drew together the microscopic and the macroscopic, drawing a thread between the satellites orbiting the earth and the bacteria at our feet.”
