diemut

PHYSARUM POLYCEPHALUM

Physarum Polycephalum

2015

Video of slime mold grown in porridge
Runtime: 1:37 minutes and 1:45 minutes
Projector field flexible ( 110,5 x 71cm)

Physarum polycephalum, is a series of living maps of crime. A video shows a recording of a live experiment of the movement of a microorganism, the slime mold Physarum polycephalum, as it responds to the placement of feeding-points of porridge oats. Its movement creates complex graphic networks similar to a road map. The created maps display the worldwide network of the different Italian Mafia crime organizations and those of other international operating crime organizations. The living maps can be seen as allegories of how a long-standing system of crime continues to massively intervene within healthy legal structures, overgrowing these infrastructures to extend its continental and worldwide networks.

Diemut Strebe
In collaboration with Toshiyuki Nakagak and Akita Dai, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Giovanni Mastrobuoni, Antonio Nicaso