Human – Bacteria Interfaces 

HBIs are imagined encompassing a continuum of diverse potential implementations, however, the HBI prototype presented at the event in October, ALI (Ambient Living Intelligence), specifically focuses on using SCOBY, a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast, as a medium for HBIs to facilitate human-microbial interaction through external stimuli and light. This microbial mix is mostly embedded in a cellulose structure of bacterial origin, forming a jelly-like texture, which provides an interface for microbial communication and interaction. When ALI detects stimuli in its surroundings, it will respond by activating fluorescent proteins, resulting in an atmospheric glow, making an otherwise invisible interaction visible to the human inhabitant.

The ALI prototype was defined through a conversation with the ways in which microbial organisms sensorily and habitually engage with their surroundings. By making such elements a central part of the initial phase of ideation, potential nonhuman narratives were defined and made part of the design and knowledge process. Ways of living with nonhumans were therefore examined through an appreciation of the other’s alterity.

HBIs are examples of interspecies communication by leveraging the sensory ‘intelligence’ and reactive behaviour of microbes and making their response to a specific stimulus accessible for the human inhabitant to interact with and respond to. Through an ethos of care, reciprocal relations between human and nonhuman are at the core of this concept, materially interrogating humankind’s dependency and relations to the nonhuman world through the designed interfaces.