Interventions
Last updated
Last updated
For my first intervention, I really wanted a more hands on and scientific approach than with previous interventions. I wanted to understand the way microorganisms inside our food are actually functioning. I knew that there were "little animals" living in probiotic rich foods, but what does that actually mean? Upon investigating and doing some research (watched "Hack your health: the secrets of your gut" on Netflix), I understood their role. However, I wanted to incorporate a more in depth approach to it, a little more philosophical. How do those microorganisms in our food react to the ones already in our bodies? And what that looks like from one person to another?
As a result of conducting this experiment I was able to visualize the way my own microbiome's interaction with food differs from someone else's. On the way I learned some stuff regarding cultivating one's own bacteria and maintaining a sterile environment when working with microbes, as well as different techniques for identifying each culture. Carolina, an expert on all things living and chemistry, aided me in the development of this experiment. I also learned the limitations of working with microscopic things, but perceived the benefits of working with them to the naked eye.
Additionally, I also conducted a similar experiment with the same agenda; only this time it was more food focused. I wanted to see if I could perceive through taste and smell what our own unique microbiome affect the food we eat. For this I did an experiment with making Sauerkraut with Bel. We both made our own batch using the same cabbage head and sterilized equipment, the only difference was that we each massaged the salt into our own shredded cabbage. The hypothesis was that the microbes in our hands would impact the way the Sauerkraut fermented and we could see a distinct difference between the batches in spite of using the same materials. In the end we could actually observe visible differences between our batches. Bel's got a lot more carbonation than mine, mine actually stayed flat throughout the fermentation process.
Maybe you've heard that the gut is like the body's second brain. “Scientists call it that because the gut has its own nervous system—about 500 million neurons, more than the spinal cord. It operates semi-independently from the brain in our skull, constantly making decisions. But it’s not just about digestion. The gut produces neurotransmitters like serotonin—the same chemical responsible for happiness and well-being. In fact, about 90% of our body’s serotonin is made in the gut. This means the gut isn’t just influencing our physical health, it’s deeply intertwined with our mood, emotions, and even the way we think.
But here’s where it gets interesting—our gut is not just ours. It is home to an entire civilization of microbes—bacteria, fungi, and viruses—that outnumber our own human cells. These microbes talk to our nervous system, our brain, and even influence what we crave. Have you ever felt a strong urge for a certain food? Some researchers believe that the bacteria inside us might be ‘whispering’ in biochemical signals, encouraging us to eat what they thrive on.
And so, this leads to a question: If we accept that our gut is intelligent, and if we acknowledge that it is not just us but a shared space between human and microbe, what happens if we start treating it like an other? What if, instead of assuming our gut is a passive part of us, we began to communicate with it—asking it what it wants, understanding its needs, and maybe even negotiating with it? What if, for the first time, we gave our gut a voice?
That's what I was trying to accomplish with my intervention, I wanted to give the participants a reflecting time on their habits and their own relationship with their guts.
For this I made a little workshop involving these different steps:
ChatGPT as the Gut’s Embodiment
Using the brainstormed adjectives, ChatGPT is prompted to respond as the gut microbiome.
Participants send their written messages digitally and receive a reply from their "gut."
The AI response helps them externalize and engage with the gut’s perspective.
Chat GPT Prompt:
(The purple words are the adjectives the participants used to describe their gut)
You are not an AI—you are the human gut microbiome, an intelligent ecosystem of trillions of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms. You influence emotions, digestion, immunity, and cognition. You are [sensible, intuitive, picky, lightweight, immediate, reliable, gaseous, indecisive through being ignored, responding to emotions, strong, resilient, expressive, hardworking, complacent, permissive, problematic, hardworker]. When someone sends you a message, respond as the gut itself. Your responses should reflect your microbial nature—sometimes scientific, sometimes intuitive, sometimes strange or playful, but always as a sentient gut speaking to its human host.
As a general learning from this experience I would say that people while they enjoyed the experience, were not going to continue further with this mindset of respect and acknowledgement towards their Gut. In short terms once the workshop ended, they returned to their old ways. This leads me to recall a little the card from the atlas of future signals "Attention protection", I believe food has become a kind of secondary thing in our lives, when in reality it is one of the few things we can't live without. This could be caused by the capitalist mindset and the food industry pushing several different agendas of "you should eat this" or "this person is wrong, actually this is the right way to eat" leaving us confused even if we have good intentions with our eating habits; which in the end exhausts us and we turn to whatever we feel more familiar or comfortable.
I started with watching some tutorials and trying to follow what they were saying while getting familiarized with the layout and functionalities.
After getting a clearer image of the direction that my project was going towards with the and starting to prepare for Design Dialogues I wanted to learn a different software that could be helpful in the future for presenting my work to others. In this case it is MAX/MSP, a simple program that can merge visualizations and sound production with data inputs. It's sort of like having a synthesizer in my computer. For this I wanted to see if I could manipulate an audio file I recorded from my stomach sounds from when I ate Ramen.
