GO BACTERIA!

by Fung Wing Lam & Seth Hon

As the pandemic escalates and the virus propagates, fear spreads at an exponential rate. Human contact becomes luxurious, and virtual connection becomes the quotidian. When’s your next online meeting? And – hello, metaverse. Can we ensure that the other world is not infected by the virus?

Since the rise of social media, the speed at which information are disseminated has been increasing at a mega scale. Massive amount of human-to-human chains transmit information at lightning speed like viruses. The virtual world has actually been invaded by all kinds of viruses for a long time. We would contract a virus and recover, and before long another piece of information would be transmitted; and this process would repeat itself again and again. As with the fatal viruses and bacteria that had caused the most recent pandemics in history, we have long since learned to co-exist with this predicament.

GO BACTERIA! transforms data from social media into a mechanical installation, in which the transmission of data determines the appearances and movements of the machines. Sets of bionic machinery reflect the spread and changes of information, and also set the scene for a bacterial contest-cum-showcase.