Next Saturday (Feb 22), as part of the White Night Melbourne 2014, the renowned biomedical animator Drew Berry will transformed the Melbourne State Library’s domed reading room into a vast microscope with a magnifying power of 1 billion times. The artwork examines eight different types of human virus in ultra-high resolution detail. Every two minutes the room switches to a different type of virus, including herpes, influenza, HIV, polio and smallpox. Depending on the type of virus and the way it stores it’s genetic code, long snaking coils of DNA or it’s more ancient cousin RNA, grip and slide across the walls like agitated Chinese dragons.
All of the molecular models, including the virus outer shells on the ceiling and the long DNA molecule, has been built to scale, using the raw scientific data from X-Ray crystallography. Every two minutes, an immune defence is released from the floor of the host room – either fluttering antibodies or hormone swarms – removing the virus overhead, and transitioning to the next virus type.
Update: there is also an interview with Drew featuring scenes from the exhibit.
