living language uses bacterium to model hebrew characters

living language uses bacterium to model hebrew letters
all photos courtesy of ori elisar

‘living language’ employs paenibacillus vortex bacteria to explore the interaction between nature and an organized culture. each petri dish models the form of a letter from the paleo-hebrew alphabet. the project was produced by ori elisar of the bezalel academy of arts and design.

 
the letter ‘mem’ begins to take form with the branching of bacteria

as the bacteria continues to grow, ‘mem’ takes on a more solid appearance while rogue bacteria breaks the perimeter

the beginning of the letter ‘samekh’, each culture takes on its own one of a kind form

the final shape of ‘samekh’ with swirling arms of bacteria

‘tav’ features radical branching arms of bacteria, achieving organic form from linear outline

 
the beginning of the growing process is typified by the spores seemingly plotting a random path

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: trevor reed | designboom