‘mitosos’

2D animation DVD, 2005 re-edited 2008.

Soundtrack: roundhouse

In this animation I creatively re-interpreted time-lapse digital videomicrograph image-data of cultured fibroblast cells from the epidermis of my forearm undergoing ‘apoptosis’. ‘Apoptosis’ is the scientific term for “induced cell death” and I wanted to see how one of my own cells would look when subjected to this process. The outcomes of this experiment provided me with my first experience of looking at cellular behaviours in detail. I found that I had a tendency to attribute anthropomorphic characteristics to the cells and that these situated readings were shared by my scientific collaborator also. The animation: mitosos explores this human/cellular connection and is a playful parody of the issues of morphing, cloning, structural change and militant territorial attitudes that I attributed to the cells under fluorescence in culture. They are alluded to in a humorous, sensual and quasi-realistic manner that is emphasised by the unsophisticated use of 2D animation. My parody of the anthropomorphic traits that I purportedly observed in the scientific image data is illusory, subversive, and whimsical 

::: VIEW MITOSOS GALLERY