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World Population in 2110
Artists: Terreform ONE
Date: 2013-14
Size: 15’ x 9’ x 3’
Media:
transgenic E. coli, parametric thermoformed styrene plates, carbon fiber rods,
steel strut channels, USB microscopes 400x, multiport high-speed USB hubs, ultraviolet
LED lighting strips, MAC Mini.
The United Nations announced: “World population stabilization unlikely this
century” (Gerland et al. 2014). In
the next 100 years we can expect human population to reach 11 billion people.
What does this increased massive growth look like? Our Bio City Map is a hybrid
art and science installation that links: transgenic design, cartography, urban
planning, and 3d parametric graphics.
We formed a world map based on the Dymaxion grid to
communicate an all-encompassing view of population density in cities based on probabilistic census data. The map
visualizes the earth as one entire urbanized place, instead of unconnected settlements,
municipalities, and disparate regions. If we are anticipating growth at this
rate almost everything in human society will be comprehensively stressed. This
systemic pressure includes: water scarcity, food shortages, overcrowding, air quality
depletion, and traffic congestion. The public must be made aware of the
consequences related to uncontrolled growth. It is the first step in
recognizing a universal challenge in this century. If we cannot foresee the impending
difficulty, the potential solutions are hard to justify.
Our Bio City Map displays population density as a
parametric graph on the front and the back is made with living biosynthetic transgenic
matter. These living elements focus on twenty-five mega-cities, genetically designed
and grown inside petri dishes. Our novel approach experimented with living
populations that consisted of billions of bacterial cells. We chose colonies of
E. coli as a method of demonstrating exponential population growth using
synthetic biology.
Population density was represented in two different
forms of fluorescent transgenic E. coli under UV light. Glowing red E. coli
represented future census projections. While green E. coli represented existing
demographic conditions you would find in today’s cities. Micro-stencils derived
from CAD files shaped the E. coli into specific geometries that display the
current geopolitical boundaries in cities.
Genetic
modifications of benign strains of E. coli were carried out at Genspace, the
world’s first community based biotech laboratory and at Terreform ONE. Genes
cloned from bioluminescent oceanic animals, such as jellyfish and coral, were
introduced into bacteria by transformation. These genes encoded information
that would enable our transformed microbes to synthesize either GFP or RFP, two
brightly fluorescent proteins. The transformed E. coli were then incubated
overnight on Petri plates containing agar based media with antibiotics, to
select our genetically modified strains. Individual bacteria divided through
repeated population doublings to produce colonies containing millions of cells.
Each selected cell now expressed our cloned proteins. We then used high-speed
centrifugation to concentrate our colonies of transgenic E. coli.
A novel method was used to produce stencil derived
bacteria prints for long-term archival quality gallery display and to underscore
the highest zones of growth. Ultimately, the
bacterial shapes grow to reveal variant patterns of transformation in urban
regions. By using biosynthetic materials, we expect to narrow the gap between
idealized mathematical interpretations and observable events in nature.
The Bio City Map is an interdisciplinary project
that involved cartographers, urban planners, biologists, and architects to
complete a manifestation of future population density. We argue that most
nations cannot view the effects of planetary population density through the
lens of just one city or region. Instead we aimed to reveal the long-range
effects of immense human growth in areas of present and speculative urban
intensity.
Credits: Mitchell Joachim, Oliver Medvedik, Nurhan
Gokturk, Melanie Fessel, Maria Aiolova.
Research Fellows: Chloe Byrne, Keith Comito, Adrian
De Silva, Daniel Dewit, Renee Fayzimatova, Alena Field, Nicholas Gervasi,
Julien Gonzalez, Lucas Hamren, Patty Kaishian, Ahmad Khan, Laasyapriya Malladi,
Karan Maniar, Ricardo Martin Coloma, Puja Patel, Merve Poyraz, Mina Rafiee,
Mahsoo Salimi, Manjula Singh, Diego Wu Law.
Our team consisted of a consortium of individuals
trained and/or working at the Harvard University Medical School and GSD, MIT
Media Lab, NYU Gallatin, Cooper Union, and the nonprofit organizations of
Terreform ONE and Genspace.
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*The United Nations (UN) recently released population projections based
on data until 2012 and a Bayesian probabilistic methodology. Analysis of these
data reveals that, contrary to previous literature, the world population is
unlikely to stop growing this century. There is an 80% probability that world
population, now 7.2 billion people, will increase to between 9.6 billion and
12.3 billion in 2100.
Gerland,
Patrick, et al. “World population
stabilization unlikely this century.” Science, Vol. 346 no. 6206 (10 October 2014) pp. 234-237.