Elvin Flamingo

Its own menu BELOW

Motto — a quote from JOE DAVIS :
If you build the bridge, sooner or later somebody's gonna come across

Motto 2 — a quote from SLEAFORD MODS :
Have you ever wondered why you wonder why?

Elvin Flamingo

The Biosphere DNA Bridge (1:100 model)

This project is under construction.
Premiere scheduled on JANUARY 24, 2025 at CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART LAZNIA 1, Poland.

Special thanks goes to: prof. Jaroslaw Marszalek, PhD., Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Gdańsk & Medical University of Gdańsk, Poland.
Assistant: Non-Alien.

In creating within the Cultural Scholarship funded by the City of Gdańsk, Poland.

The Biosphere DNA Bridge (1:100 model), Elvin Flamingo

THIS PROJECT IS STILL UNDERWAY, 2023—2024.

Elvin Flamingo, December 2023
The Biosphere DNA Bridge / 2023—2024
The project is made possible thanks to a grant from the City of Gdańsk for culture creators and the research support of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk.

Most research into genetic codes as well as the study of their errors and mutations is conducted on individual organisms, ranging from viruses and bacteria through to humans.
The Biosphere DNA Bridge project steps ahead of the present by claiming that there will be an acceptance in science for the existence of, and documented possibility of studying, the DNA of the biosphere. The aim of the project is to start with this assumption and expand the scientific perception of life, i.e. the perception of the DNA and RNA of Planet Earth's biosphere with their persistent errors.
Whenever I think of the DNA of the biosphere, I see it as life taking place within life. It is an infinity of individual DNA records collected in an infinite succession of biosphere DNA records.
It is a unique and scientifically unpredictable fact that such DNA and RNA may harbour, apart from living-living, also living-robotic.
The objective of following the above assumption is met through an autonomous bio-installation with live DNA and RNA chains.
Ultimately, my bio-installation / DNA bridge / contains genetic codes and errors of genetic codes outside individual organisms, quoted living-living and living-robotic (engineered) codes. I claim that there will be vast opportunities of examining the mechanisms of the emergence of mutations and errors of the biosphere we inhabit.
The project is a 1:100 model, making use of miniatures of humans and miniatures of robots in the form of thousands of ants. On a scale of 1:1, the ants will be replaced by robots designed specifically for this project by Boston Dynamics (artist’s intention), in the following sizes: the size of robots — 30-60 cm, the number of robots — 100-120 pieces.
Thanks to the advanced technologies applied, the robots will have all the features attributed to living organisms.
At present, the photographs show an “empty” bridge as it harbours no life (ant farms are located elsewhere — technical info).
Consultations have been carried out in the Department of Evolutionary Biochemistry of the Biotechnology Institute, University of Gdańsk.
The present state of science decisively denies the existence of the DNA of the biosphere.
The Biosphere DNA Bridge is a pioneering work which postulates the existence of the DNA of the biosphere.

The 1:100 model, in all the DNA and RNA helixes and in the prepared hexagonal nests and pentagonal arenas, will serve as the living and breeding space for the Messor barbarus (harvester ants) and the Pheidole indica, some of the world’s tiniest ants, which make up so-called immortal colonies by inbreeding.
A European example of an immortal colony, confirmed by scholars in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), is an ant colony, around six kilometres long, stretching from the Italian Riviera along the sea coast through to north-western Spain. These are the Linepithema humile, which I have not made part of the project, but which is crucial for the overall idea.
The hexagonal and pentagonal shapes in the project match the DNA and RNA records, including the DNA and the RNA of the biosphere of Planet Earth.
The film presentation will be made publicly available after life has been introduced into the bridge.
The project is scheduled to premiere on 24 January 2025 at the ŁAŹNIA 1 Centre for Contemporary Art in Gdańsk.

Stanisław Łoboziak, December 2023
molecular biologist, creator of artificial meat on a scaffold of spinach leaves.
About Elvin Flamingo’s project The Biosphere DNA Bridge.

The spatial structure of the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) was discovered on 28 February 1953 and was described in a single-page article in Nature (25.04.1953). It was then that the world got to know the structure of the particle responsible for coding information on each and every living organism on our planet. The DNA double helix has permanently entered the language of pop culture and has become a widely recognised symbol.

Few realise, however, that the helix need not be double and that DNA alone and in combination with RNA or protein molecules, can form a triple helix structure. However, it is extremely complicated to imagine, and so far only scientists have explored the subject.

Information about the entire biosphere, i.e. all organisms that live on our planet or have inhabited it in the past, is encoded in the DNA. It is an infinite data catalogue that all living organisms draw on, often "exchanging" genes, copying them with errors or even stealing them to evolve, creating new forms never seen before. For me as a scientist, Elvin Flamingo's installation The Biosphere DNA Bridge (2023-2024) demonstrates very accurately the structure of the triple DNA helix and creates a very profound metaphor for the evolution of the entire animate world, while the inclusion of colonies of harvester ants, which by feeding on seeds contribute to the spread of many plant species, brings to mind the theory of panspermia. The bridge-like installation itself and the inclusion in it of miniature models of humans shows the humility with which we as a species should approach our place on the tree of life of all organisms inhabiting the Earth. This tree will evidently grow new branches, as the possibilities of the DNA code are virtually infinite.