Manifesto for the Holobiont in Its Infancy - Human Version

2021

When the existence of one single individual is in fact a coexistence of multiple species, how does that alter our ancestry? The artist takes her own blood for whole genome sequencing, obtaining 50 GB of data that represents “me.” After running the data through various sequence classification tools, she uncovers the existence of multiple microbes: some related to the artist’s medical history while others having not been seen before. These previously unseen, yet coexisting components of “me,” still constitute a part of us and our ancestry.

• Illustration: Yu Fan
• Dolls: Ling-Li Chen
• Sponsors:Hong Chien Ching-Hui, Hong Foundation