DIAMOND DISH I & DIAMOND DISH II 2025

Year
2025

Author
Laura Beloff

The work was created in an invited residency at Cultivamos Cultura, Portugal.

DIAMOND DISH I & DIAMOND DISH II (Beloff 2025)

1. Diamond dish I (for Yayoi Kusama) - 12min video-loop A custom-fabricated diamond-shaped glass Petri dish with matching glass cover. Video documentation of a biochemistry experiment conducted within the diamond-shaped dish, played at the 2 x speed.

2. Diamond dish II - 8min video-loop A custom-fabricated diamond-shaped glass Petri dish with matching glass cover. Video documentation of a biochemistry experiment conducted within the diamond-shaped dish, played at the 2 x speed.

The work features biochemistry-based droplet experiments performed in custom-made glass Petri dishes. Each of the two dishes is displayed as an object, with video footage of the corresponding experiment projected into its interior.

This work is about potentiality and open possibilities. The droplets move, divide, fuse, and drift in the glass Petri dish — seemingly guided by internal logic. They form their own world within a Petri dish. These protocell-like small entities perform a strange choreography, hovering between mechanical precision and organic spontaneity. This work creates a world where biology is no longer given — droplets present intelligence in wetware, and they present potential for protocols that evolve in fluids.

Credits © Laura Beloff, 2025 This work was developed during the Cultivamos Cultura residency in São Luís (PT), as part of the Rewilding Cultures (EU) program. The custom-made glass Petri dishes were crafted at Aalto University’s Glass Workshop (FI) — with special thanks to Zacharias Compton and Slate Grove. A heartfelt thank you to Professor Martin Hanczyc (CiBIO UniTN, IT) whose introduction to protocell research has been foundational to this project.