culture.
bespoke microbial flavoring
Our project is a reflection on the possibilities of microbiomes to be used as a form of cultural archive. Based on the emerging science linking microbiomes to terroir in wine and other foods, we imagine a future where we can capture place and time with the microorganisms living in that moment.
We imagined a future where we had done the research to associate microbial communities with their associated metabolic pathways that produce noticeable tastes and smells, leading to a product that would enable home cooks to work with a wide range of microorganisms in a natural, friendly way.
In that future, we also imagined that those home cooks could send samples of their ferments, specifically yogurt in our example, to be sequenced and analyzed for their own specific terroirs. The yogurt samples would be catalogued into an archive of yogurt cultures from around the world, mapping the cross-cultural exchanges that happen as yogurts beget new yogurts.
Microorganisms already are vehicles for exchange; for diversity; for connecting us with one another, while still capturing our individual identities in their full complexity. In a world that feels increasingly solitary in our daily lives, while totally interdependent in our global political economy, perhaps we can gain inspiration for new ideas in our social institutions from the invisible world within and around us.
We use microbial cultures to capture time + place and bring your memories to life in your kitchen.
introducing culture:
We use cutting edge genomics research to bring your memories to life. Our Microbial Kits capture the terroir of place and time and allow you to use memories as flavor and our Microbial Archive connects you with the rest of the world through your kitchen microbiomes.
