3. Molly the maker visits the lab!

Our ideas for the Me and my microbiome project have been prioritised and a schedule has been devised – first task = design the new festival stand! Jenni has been working with artist and designer Molly Barrett to translate and distil key parts of our research that can become the focus of visual installations. Jenni and Molly came to visit the lab with a draft plan of their idea. Molly showed us some sketches which were inspiring! We discussed how the science was communicated and came up with additional ideas. For the final version, we need to decide which seven microbes will be featured in the exhibit. We have all been tasked with putting forward our favourite microbe for a vote at the next lab meeting – although we all love Bifidobacterium so that’s sure to make the final cut!

4. Delivery day!

Molly has built five game stations for our new festival stand and a 2D mini gut as a prototype. The buttons and themes are in place on the game stations but now we have to work out the programming codes and the electronics……

5. Norwich has a Hack Space!

The challenge of programming and wiring the gut has led to lots of head scratching and wondering who might take on such a task. Recently Jenni attended a meeting about a new BioMakers group that is being set up in Norwich to explore projects that span the disciplines of biology, technology, engineering and arts. It was at the meeting that she heard of an existing Hackspace in Norwich that started in August 2016 and has a large group of people from all different backgrounds who share a passion for “making and recreating things, inventing, investigating, collaborating and generally tinkering.” Could these be the right people for the job?………

Look out for part three in the Me and my microbiome series!