Berlin, 2007-2009
Duration Homo Amoeba film: 1:53 min
Duration documentary: 14.53 min
Project “Homo Amoeba” started out of a fascination with amoebas, i.e. micro-organisms with an elastic cell wall. Amoeba comes from the greek word “ amoiba” meaning “change”. Because of its elastic cell wall, the amoeba changes shape all the time. This allows it to adapt to any situation.
I considered this as a philosophical ideal. If we could think as flexibly as an amoeba, we could understand our world much better. In addition we would be also much more creative by progressing on from our pre-shaped thinking patterns.
Project
To show the adaptabillity of the amoeba, I asked Werner Seidel, a microchiptechnician to build a microscopic obstacle course for the amoeba. With microbiologist Ralph Gräf, I filmed the experiment with amoebas inside an artificial labyrinth.
The film is on one hand a documentary about my collaboration with the scientists Ralph and Werner who made this biological experiment possible. On the other hand it is a more personal experiment, where I put my philosophical ideal about flexibillity to the test.
The project was made in collaboration with Erfan Abdi (musician), Ralph Gräf (microbiologist, University of Potsdam), Werner Seidel (microchiptechnician, Paul-Drude Institute), Yusuke Yamasuki (dancer), Philipp Tigris and Lena Ries (contortionists.)