Glass Microbiology by Luke Jerram

Anyone who has taken a look through a modern scientific textbook probably noticed how vividly coloured most of the diagrams are. While scientific illustrations can be extremely helpful in understanding the inner workings of things like pathogens and plant/animal cells, they can also be a little misleading. Luke Jerram has highlighted this notion with a sculptural series called Glass Microbiology.

“These transparent glass sculptures were created to contemplate the global impact of each disease and to consider how the artificial colouring of scientific imagery affects our understanding of phenomena. Jerram is exploring the tension between the artworks’ beauty, what they represent and their impact on humanity.”

Via: We Make Money, Not Art

Luke and his E. Coli sculpture.

7 Replies to “Glass Microbiology by Luke Jerram”

  1. I don’t “buy” what this person is saying about their work. Maybe a person who does biological research related to disease will buy one of these pieces and put it in their office, which will hopefully inspire them to “work harder”. Though other than that, I don’t think this will make any “real” impact people’s perception of “disease” or their impact on humanity.

  2. He probably just really wanted to see his idea exist as a tangible thing and felt like he had to attach some lofty statement to it. You can’t deny that there’s pressure to do that sort of thing (especially in art school). Whether or not that’s happening here, I’m not sure.

  3. Yes I know. That’s how I saw the whole thing. Though it makes me question the state of “conceptual” art. It’s maybe not as inherently political as it was in the 60-90s.

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