Except for a few species like the Dinoflagellata, which belongs to both the plant and animal kingdoms, bioluminescence is only found in a few animal species. According to biological evolution, a single organism cannot both consume light as energy and use that energy to create its own light. Over the last few years however genetic manipulation has made it possible to create bioluminescent plants. Acting simultaneously as plants and non plants, these artificial organisms transgress the laws of nature.
In traditional gardens the landscape is organized around the viewer’s perception; his reality and the world around him are brought together as one. By placing these technological plants in a garden, the viewer is seeing the light he has himself created. This is a display of the utopia of our era; a technique of man’s own invention allows him to create a luminous other. This is the expression of man’s impossible desire to possess light. Here, a sculpture in the shape of a luminous brain represents the light-emitting man superposed with the light-receiving man.
The transgenic moss in this work emits its light when sprayed with a luciferine solution. In an ealier version of Light, only light, the light can be seen in complete darkness using an ultra sensitive digital video camera. Emitting time varies according to the quantity of moss and luciferine. For the Sk-interfaces exhibition in 2008, a new moss with superior visibility qualities of luminescence is being specially developed at Leeds University’s center for Plant Sciences, by Dr. Andrew C.Cuming with help of Prof. Setsuyuki Aoki of Nagoya University in Japan. Currently the team of Prof. Ralf Reski, University of Freiburg (DE) cooperates the development of this projects.