PORTFOLIO
AUDREY RANGEL AGUIRRE
Audrey Rangel Aguirre
Terras Lux Project 2020 - ongoing
Poster of the Ongoing Research Project Terras Lux. Photograph of soil under the microscope and biomaterial sculpture, 2021. Audrey Rangel Aguirre.
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About the project: Consciousness is evoked by a vision of a simultaneous view of the micro scale, the human scale, and the macrocosm. Terras Lux Project is an interdisciplinary ongoing project that enquiries into microbiology, biotechnology, astrobiology, physics, soil science, and spirituality. Guiding the spectator through photography, installations, projections, sculptures, and research, it proposes the experience of approaching, through art and science, a connection with the energy that unifies microbial ecosystems, energy in the human body and cosmic rays. Wishing to provide a link through speculative systems, a dimension where spirituality, art and science brings humanity into the next phases of civilization.
The Language of Sentient Soil, The Microbial Fuel Cell System of Soil as a Philosophical Framework for Reciprocity I. November 2024 - ongoing.
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The Language of Sentient Soil, The Microbial Fuel Cell System of Soil as a Philosophical Framework for Reciprocity I. Drawing with digital intervention. Concept and research by Ioannis Ieropoulos and Audrey Rangel Aguirre. Drawing and image digital process by Audrey Rangel Aguirre and Jose Lopez \ H C-(M). (Nov.2024), The conceptual and philosophical framework will be premiered at ISEA 2025, Seoul, Republic of Korea. 30th International Symposium on Electronic/Emerging Art. May 2025. This image is a prototype of sustainable biosystem for the generation of energy that will be presented for the first time at ISEA 2025. The images are part of the initial phase of the project towards prototyping.
The Language of Sentient Soil, The Microbial Fuel Cell System of Soil as a Philosophical Framework for Reciprocity II. November 2024 - ongoing.
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The Language of Sentient Soil, The Microbial Fuel Cell System of Soil as a Philosophical Framework for Reciprocity II. Drawing with digital intervention. Concept and research by Ioannis Ieropoulos and Audrey Rangel Aguirre. Drawing and image digital process by Audrey Rangel Aguirre and Jose Lopez \ H C-(M). (November 2024). This image is a prototype of sustainable biosystem for the generation of energy that will be presented for the first time at ISEA 2025. The images are part of the initial conceptual phase of the project towards prototyping.
The Language of Sentient Soil, The Microbial Fuel Cell System of Soil as a Philosophical Framework for Reciprocity III. November 2024 - ongoing.
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The Language of Sentient Soil, The Microbial Fuel Cell System of Soil as a Philosophical Framework for Reciprocity III. Drawing with digital intervention. Concept and research by Ioannis Ieropoulos and Audrey Rangel Aguirre. Drawing and image digital process by Audrey Rangel Aguirre and Jose Lopez \ H C-(M). (November 2024). This image is a prototype of sustainable biosystem for the generation of energy that will be presented for the first time at ISEA 2025. The images are part of the initial conceptual phase of the project towards prototyping.
Bioelectrical Fields and Human Microbiomes. 2024 – ongoing.
Bioelectrical Fields and Human Microbiomes a collaboration between ecologist, botanist, and bioelectrical composer Michael Allen Z. Prime, and Audrey Rangel Aguirre interdisciplinary artist and researcher. Premiering our research on the bioelectrical sound of the human microbiome, relating to soil in the context of the convergence of Art & Science.
Presented at The 4th POM Conference RWTH Aachen University KäteHamburger Kolleg: Cultures of Research (c:o/re). April 22-26, 2024 International Conference POM Aachen 2024, Politics of the Machines Lifelikeness & beyond.
On this collaboration, we wanted to observe the differences between hand microbiome from people that handle soil on a regular basis like gardeners living in natural environments, and hand microbiomes from people who don’t handle soil and live in a city context.To start with the research we took the fingerprints of hands from gradeners who interact with soil on a regular basis and also took fingerprints from people non gardeners. We used petri dishes filled with a growth media of carbon agar to take the samples of finger prints, when the participants touched the black agar, the finger prints imprinted the hand microbiome and it remained on the petri dish. The next step was closing the petri dishes and wait for 2 weeks on warm temperature to allow the fungal colonies to grow. After 2 weeks you can see each petri dish from different participants has grown different fungal colonies. To do this experiment we used a practice that belongs to the field of microbiology called fungal morphology, and then when the fungal colonies were grown, Michael made the sonification of the fungal colonies.
Extract of the video Bioelectrical Fields and Human Microbiomes, a collaboration by Michael Allen Z. Prime and Audrey Rangel Aguirre, presented at The 4th POM Conference RWTH Aachen University KäteHamburger Kolleg: Cultures of Research (c:o/re). April 22-26, 2024 International Conference POM Aachen 2024, Politics of the Machines Lifelikeness & beyond.
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Axis interactive installation showing the process of Terras Lux Project,
2023.
Photo of Axis Interactive Installation, at the Not for sale Gallery, London, U.K., 2023. Audrey Rangel Aguirre.
Axis Interactive Installation , as part of the ongoing research project Terras Lux, was an exciting opportunity to engage with the public and share the research and methodologies of Terras Lux, ongoing research project since 2020 by interdisciplinary artist Audrey Rangel Aguirre. We had the pleasure to have visitors in the gallery interacting with the installation, where we collected some samples from her hands on Agar Petri dish. We captured superficial bacteria from their hands skin microbiome and now it is part of the installation, by placing their Petri dish on the soil part of the installation. This is a speculative philosophical/scientific action, where the microbiome of the audience becomes interconnected with the micro ecosystems on soil.
AXIS, an intersection where light, the universe, humans and microorganisms exist, creating an energetic synthesis. Experiencing the micro, macro and human scale simultaneously, through light and biology. Showcasing the process and experimental procedures conducted during the ongoing research project Terras Lux by interdisciplinary artist Audrey Rangel Aguirre started in 2020.
The experimental art/science installation doubles as intellectual and intuitive research, and an inquiry lab, that acts as a context of reciprocity connected with the rotation of the earth by an speculative axis of light. This is a philosophical action that gives the installation a dimension of connection with the cosmos, and simultaneously, with microbes and humanity, through light and energy. Light is Life was an International Group Light Art Show exhibited on May and June 2023 curated by Alexa Muen at The Not For Sale Gallery, London, U.K.
Axis Interactive Installation sessions with the audience at The Not For Sale Gallery, London, U.K. 2023
Video of the interactive sessions with the public, during the exhibition of Axis Interactive Installation, as part of Terras Lux Project. May - June 2023, part of Light is Life Exhibition curated by Alexa Muen, at The Not For Sale Gallery, London, U.K.
Microscopy sessions for Terras Lux Project, a Catalogue of images of soil and organic matter, 2020 - ongoing.
Since the start of the ongoing research project Terras Lux on 2020, an extensive catalogue of micrographs have been taken using a light microscope, examining samples of soil and organic matter to visualize and study the microscopic scale.
Earthwomb, intervention-performance as part of Terras Lux Project, September 2022.
Earthwomb, photography outcome of the action-performance by the artist by placing agar petri dishes under the soil in the forest for 2 weeks. 2022.
Earthwomb is an action by the artist that envisions the potentiality of soil as a generator of energy, but also acknowledges nature on Earth as the force that can have an impact on our behavior as a society.
By placing closed petri dishes prepared with growing cultures media(agar), inside a hole dug by the artist directly on the soil surface. Just a few centimetres away from the surface, the petri dishes lay in a comfortable and warm soil bed, the petri dishes are covered with soil till they are completely underground. Inside the petri dishes is a growing media non-invasive and non-toxic prepared with agar, and inside each petri dish a small handful of soil has been placed, soil from the same forest that is now containing the petri dishes underground. As if the petri dishes were inside Nature’s Womb.
With this action the artist tries to achieve reciprocity as a poetic act of embrace, the embrace of the Earth made of soil, that now covers the petri dishes, poetically embracing them. There is energy contained in the petri dishes as a form of potentiality, one that will bring life by respecting the ecosystem and is now poetically and energetically linked to the soil. A flow of energy coming from a human act towards soil, in a form of a living artwork, while inside of the petri dishes new living matter comes to life, based on the soil properties and composition of the soil of the forest, the Earth shares its energy in an act of endless reciprocity and cosmic wisdom. The forces that are implied in life are those of reciprocity and care, If we as a species could create a new thinking system of care and reciprocity towards the ecosystems and all the living beings, we could create a more conscious system of knowledge beneficial for Earth and for us.
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Video of Earthwomb presented at the Interdisciplinary Conference TTT2023 Taboo Transgression Transcendence in Art & Science 27-29 September 2023 at Malta Society of Arts, Valletta, Malta. Premiering the research project Earthwomb focusing on the growth of fungal colonies related to soil microbial communities in the forest, as part of Terras Lux Project.
​In Vivo,
DNA as Fundamental Storage, Or how to design Deposits for the History of Humanity
Collaboration with biotechnologists Edson Reyna and Luis Valtier, 2023.
​Biomaterials Library
​Biomaterials as a suitable medium of DNA storage.
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​Biomaterials Library, as part of In Vivo, DNA as Fundamental Storage, Or how to design Deposits for the History of Humanity. Biomaterials as a suitable medium of DNA storage. Collaboration with biotechnologists Edson Reyna and Luis Valtier, 2023 - ongoing.
As an interdisciplinary group of biotechnologists, programmers, and artists, we started a research question in which we imagine the different ways in which digital information will be stored, preserved, and shared in the future: Can digital information be stored in DNA?
And if so, why should we do it? Beyond its potential as a high-density tool for storing data, DNA could soon become an unbreakable storage element of our own cultural ties.
We will experiment based on the latest findings and basic principles of DNA data storage. First, we will encode digital files such as words, photographs or audio to a quaternary programming language and turn them into a nitrogenous bases language (A, T, G, C), which are the structural units for DNA synthesis. Once the message is encoded and translated into biological language, the DNA with the encrypted file is synthesized by chemical or enzymatic methods. Subsequently, the DNA must be stored in a suitable medium to avoid its degradation and information loss. Finally, the genetic material can be brought back and decrypted using sequencing methods to recover the original file. In this project we propose to storage this information in mammalian cells, using genetic engineering and synthetic biology tools, in which we imagine a utopia in which information is stored in our own body. Imagine storing all the information of the internet, for example, in a few genes on human chromosomes. This makes us think that we could be carriers of our own history, and the enormous amount of data that every day updates the evolution of our culture. In addition, the code of life is the fundamental unit of heredity, which makes us think that this information would be conserved and transmitted each generation. In a few years our species will evolve into a form that is probably unrecognizable, but perhaps with any luck, the digital information will be encrypted in their own genomes.
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Collaboration with scientist Marta Filipa Simões, Astrobiologist focused on Microbiology and Astromicology. As part of the ongoing research project Terras Lux, 2021.
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Extremophile, digital image, part of the collaboration with Astrobiologist Marta Filipa Simões, as part of Terras Lux Project, 2021.
In September 2021 I started a collaboration with Marta Filipa Simões, Astrobiologist focused on Microbiology and Astromicology, Researcher at State Key Laboratory of Lunar and Planetary Sciences. M.U.S.T. Macau University of Science and Technology. Macau, China.
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The collaboration produced a number of outcomes:
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1. “Extremophile” Extremophile is a speculative microorganism that originated on Earth but will be developing on other planets, after transplanetary missions to outer space by human race.
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Published in: https://seismamag.com/studiolab-rangel-aguirre
Please press the button to see the publication:
2. Concept and paper for the project “Body-Capsule for Transplanetary Travel” written in collaboration with Marta Filipa Simões in 2021 - ongoing.
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3. Biomaterials research through light sculpture, please see images: https://www.audreyrangelaguirre.com/collaboration-with-astrobiologist
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Please press button to see collaboration:
Terras Lux Ongoing Research Project since 2020
Three-dimensional Diagram of microecosystem’s energy connected with energy from the human body II, Detail from the installation exhibited at the Degree Show “Virtual Ground” MA Art & Science, Central Saint Martins. Held at Asylum Chapel, Peckham, London, U.K. 2021. Photography published in Floresta Magazine Issue 001, November 2021, Photography by Younkuk Choi.
Consciousness is evoked by a vision of a simultaneous view of the micro scale, the human scale, and the macrocosm. Terras Lux Project is an interdisciplinary ongoing project that enquiries into microbiology, biotechnology, astrobiology, physics, energy harvesting technology, biodesign, soil science, philosophy, art and spirituality. Guiding the spectator through photography, installations, projections, sculptures, and research, it proposes the experience of approaching, through art and science, a connection with the energy that unifies microbial ecosystems, energy in the human body and cosmic rays. Wishing to provide a link through speculative systems, with a dimension where spirituality, art and science evolves humanity into civilization and the experience of cosmos
Terras Lux is a speculative project that encloses energy as its main topic. Its origin is situated inside the philosophical and aesthetic frame of the different scales perceived by humans. It is inspired by a vision I had as a glimpse of consciousness, that filled my existence and made me translate this cosmological knowledge into an art project, that evolves itself as an unravelling mass of energy. This vision was the simultaneous view of the microscopic scale, the human scale, and the macrocosm.
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Currently on its first phase, the core and intellectual structure of the project Terras Lux is the energy as electricity produced by microbial ecosystems on soil related with the energy of the human body, I present soil as a natural source of renewable energy that will be the future technology on future systems for human civilisation.
Speculative Future, as part of Terras Lux Project, Installation with moss, bioplastic and light. Photography by Audrey Rangel Aguirre, London, 2021.
Please find an article published about the project on Interalia Magazine:
Hacking Hearts Research Project at The Grow Lab, Central Saint Martins, 2019.
Still from the video of the Hacking Hearts Residency at The Grow Lab, Central Saint Martins, November 2019. Artist Audrey Rangel Aguirre presenting a prototype that uses the energy of the blood stream to harvest and distribute it to power an electrical device for medical aid for the heart. The prototype was one of the outcomes of the residency as a result of insights of research on heart disease elaborated through an interdisciplinary approach to generate prototypes by artists and designers,
Extract from the video of Hacking Hearts Residency at The Grow Lab, Central Saint Martins, November 2019. Scenes of the research and activities of the scientists and artists at the laboratory, as well as interdisciplinary artist Audrey Rangel Aguirre working and presenting the prototype as one of the outcomes of the Residency.
Participation at Hacking Hearts Residency and research-action project part of a transnational and transdisciplinary collaboration between Central Saint Martins and Tokyo Institute of Technology, exploring methods and mindsets of the disciplines across art, design, science and engineering. As part of the launch of the new Grow Lab facility at Central Saint Martins which aims to bring cutting edge scientific research into art and design teaching and research. Hacking Hearts reimagines cutting-edge scientific research centered on heart disease by artists and designers. November 2019, The Grow Lab, London, U.K.