Sensing Holobiont
Welcome hungry holobionts
Assemblages of microbial and human cells
Micro and macro oddkin: Odd in size, kin in cometabolism
Let your billion mouths body absorb this world
of symbiotic becomings, taste its potential
and digest it into new and tender
recipes for reciprocity.
Smelling, tasting, and eating can feel like some of our most personal, intimate acts. My body, my tongue, my gut, my experience, my feelings. What happens when we realise we never eat on our own, but always with and for and thanks to other species, on and in and all around us? And how might this realisation in turn shape how we eat, sense, and orient ourselves to all our earthly companions?
These questions guided our collaborative creation of an art–science public engagement project called ‘Sensing Holobiont: flavourful rituals for metabolic companions’. Through immersive, multisensory experiences and flavourful storytelling, we sought to explore how ‘holobiont thinking’ can contribute to sustainability, ecological regeneration, and planetary consciousness.
We joined this story in May 2022. A colleague—Joana Formosinho, then a PhD Fellow at the Medical Museion at the University of Copenhagen, doing research on the figure of the holobiont in the life sciences—reached out to me. She asked if we might want to be involved in ‘conjuring up a “holobiont dinner”’, likely involving fermented foods and some kind of meditation/playful experience for guests, inviting them to eat as holobionts. It would be led by artists Baum & Leahy, with whom Joana had already collaborated on a piece called ‘Co-metabolise’ for the Museion’s exhibition at Kunsthal Charlottenborg called The World Is In You in 2021-2022, and curated by Louise Whiteley, associate professor and curator at the Medical Museion and one of Joana’s supervisors. Louise also worked on Co-metabolise, along with Rob Dunn, professor of ecology whose lab has been doing some super interesting studies of the ecology, evolution, and biodiversity of fermented foods. The project would celebrate the end of ‘Microbes on the Mind’, a Velux-funded grant led by Louise, and would coincide with a three-day workshop gathering of the Nordic Network for the Social Study of Microbes, led by Salla Sariola at the University of Helsinki. They hoped the work would reach these different audiences—researchers studying microbes, food, and food systems across disciplines, artists thinking and working with microbes, food producers and fermenters, and other interested publics.
I had done a bit of work with the Medical Museion before, whose wonderful exhibitions on the history and culture of medical science and whose experimental approach to public engagement I’ve always found captivating. So the opportunity to play more together, especially with such an enticing group of collaborators, was the easiest thing to say yes to. They needed a partner who could help develop and lead the food side of things. We were happy to do it.
From summer we met and began fleshing out ideas and plans—Rose (Leahy), Amanda (Baum), Louise, Joana, and Rob, along with Kim and me. Together we pooled ideas, conceptualised the piece and what it should explore, and brainstormed its tone and style. Rose, Amanda, Kim and I took the lead on developing the structure and content of the work; the installation, menu, and performance were so interlinked and had to be developed together. Once we had worked out some menu ideas, Kim worked intently on recipe R&D throughout the fall, holding tastings and iterating the dishes in feedback with Rose and Amanda’s evolving artistic vision. At critical points in the process we shared our progress with and sought feedback from the others (Louise, Joana, and Rob). Together, we wrote the script and descriptive text, planned all the complex logistics, installed and prepped everything, and rehearsed. Somehow, with a lot of work from all sides, including a host of supporting hands from Museion, Baum & Leahy’s network, our group, and assorted friends and colleagues, we pulled something together in time for the performances, from 9th to 11th of January, 2023.
Sensing Holobiont: Flavourful Rituals for Metabolic Companions (2023)
Combining novel gastronomy, interactive installation and microbiome research, Sensing Holobiont explores the vital connections among species, bodies, food and the environment. Taking cues from the growing movement in the sciences to recast multicellular organisms as ‘holobionts’ the work asks: How might a multisensorial ceremony help us to recognise and realise our holobiont selves? And how might this realisation change our relationship to our bodies, to eating, and to planetary health?
A holobiont is an ecological unit consisting of a ‘host organism’ – animal, plant or fungi – and the associated microbes, viruses and smaller holobionts living in and on it. While implications of the ecological, evolutionary and daily dynamics of holobionts are being increasingly studied, Sensing Holobiont invites us into a shared exploration of the flavourful complexities of being multispecies consortia.
For us, Sensing Holobiont is an exciting example of how we can use art to bring together disciplines and media, and explore new, delicious ways of cultivating sustainable consciousness. We were thrilled to be part of this brilliant team and contribute our gastronomic, theoretical, and creative expertise to the project.
Other institutions have been interested in hosting reproductions of the work, which is something we are keen to explore. If you would like to work with us to mount a version of Sensing Holobiont, and have funds and potentially institutional support to enable it, you are most welcome to reach out.
Acknowledgements & contributions
Concept development: Amanda Baum, Rose Leahy, Josh Evans, Kim Wejendorp, Louise Whiteley
Installation and material elements: Amanda Baum and Rose Leahy
Menu development: Kim Wejendorp and Josh Evans
Script writing: Amanda Baum, Rose Leahy, Josh Evans, and Louise Whiteley
Menu execution: Kim Wejendorp
Performance: Amanda Baum, Rose Leahy, Josh Evans, and Louise Whiteley
Curator: Louise Whiteley
Conceptual and scientific input: Rob Dunn and Joana Formosinho
Project coordinators: Cecilie Glerup and Simone Cecilie Pedersen
Co-creating assistants: Ella Yolande and Lene Rottensten
Menu execution assistant: Nurdin Topham
Creative producer: Anna Firbank
Soundscape: Sofie Birch (main room), Ella Yolande (anteroom)
Biomaterials: Natural Material Studio
Custom glass bowls: Adam Aaronson
Photos: Rune Svenningsen, Tobias Horvath
Video: Tobias Horvath
Special thanks: Adam Bencard, Caroline Kothe
The project was supported by the Velux grant “Microbes on the Mind”, the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research (CBMR) at the University of Copenhagen, Sustainable Food Innovation at The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability (DTU Biosustain), and Statens Kunstfond.
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