American Vectors

Visit the webcam page after Jan. 24th, 2009 to see streaming images of new bacteria cultures.

New cultures are visible on “The Webcams” page!

In quantum physics, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle is the statement that locating a particle in a small region of space makes the velocity of the particle uncertain; and conversely, that measuring the velocity of a particle precisely makes the position uncertain. The term “uncertainty” is used in different fields (law, physics, sociology, engineering, etc) in different ways. In this situation, I am applying it to my experiments in my lab.

I have been creating cultures with Serratia for a few years now, and I have my lab procedures down to a set of steps that yields fairly predictable results. Unfortunately, just as the summer began I was required to move my lab due to construction in my building. I was quite lucky, a colleague offered me a great space that he had no plans to use this summer. So I moved in and set up shop in this new space and ran a few tests in preparation for the launch of this project.

I set up webcams using different software to test the hardware end of things and for good measure, I created a few cultures and left them under the webcams for a couple weeks to test the wetware side of things. All went well and you can see the tests here. Based on these tests, I made the assumption that I could install cultures in my combination fume hood/light box, with webcams trained upon them, for the three weeks I planned to be gone at the ISEA conference. Which I did, but just before leaving I documented the cultures with my high resolution SLR camera. I thought nothing of the small spider I found on my light box (on the outside) that I squashed and killed. Obviously, the ‘not thinking,’ that was a mistake.

About two hours outside of Washington DC, I checked in on my webcams via my phone and noticed small distortions in the image. I though it was evening sunlight shining through the glass cover or some jpeg artifact that I hadn’t noticed before. When I checked back a few hours later, the “distortions” were unmistakably darker, linear and slightly red. This was bad. It meant something dragged, or to be more accurate: tracked, the bacteria from where it was applied to other parts of the dish. I was torn between feeling upset and amused. The little spider had friends, and they were “attacking” my culture like little insurgents.

The upset part: artists who use living materials always face more scrutiny that scientists. I can assure you I have been in research labs that look nothing like the sterile, beautifully lit labs of CSI and other crime shows. The labs I’ve seen are full of mostly male college students. This is a big generalization, but as a group, they are not known for their thoroughness, cleanliness or consideration when it comes to using shared spaces. I’ve seen labs that were complete pigsties with old pizza boxes and fast food containers everywhere. I took pictures, I have proof. They are anything but sterile. However none of this excuses the fact that I let my cultures get contaminated though knowing my own limitations on space and materials, I’ve only used a mostly harmless bacteria that one might find in soil, trash or even less than clean bathrooms. (You know, that red ring you may have seen in a toilet or tub could be Serratia marcescens. Mold makes me more sick than this stuff.)

The amused part: In a way, this is what I always wanted out of these visualizations. The idea of using a living form to represent the infrastructure of war, map globalization or visualize the effects of an ideology was to use the properties of living materials for their inherent unpredictability. I’ve made maps using Serratia with the hope that the bacteria would travel beyond the site of application. In this particular situation, I have to admit the spiders where there in the space first, I invaded their space. It fits the theme of this project quite well.

I’ve made a time-lapse video which shows the development of one of these cultures, the Balad Airbase culture, over a few days. You’ll notice I moved them around a bit while I photographed them in the early stages. On July 10th around noon I remove the lid of the dish so that condensation wouldn’t fall back on the culture and destroy the pattern I’ve established. If you look closely at around 3:30 AM on July 11th, you will see a couple dots that appear and disappear. Those are the spiders. there may have been only one.

Tallil airbase provides the military with the ability to lethal combat air power and predator drone aircrafts are maintained and launched from here.^1.

Another one of the plates I began on July 9th, 2008. This one depicts the “contingency operating base,” at Qayyarah West, often called “Q-West” or “Key West” by troops and contractors. The contingency operating bases are reformulated, consolidated bases that were once called “enduring bases.” Though all the bases are highly fortified and becoming more so every day, the pentagon prefers to describe them with the word the word “contingency,” because it sounds less permanent than “enduring,” which replaced the term “permanent.” The language gets lighter as more and more concrete is poured.

As with the other plates I began on this date, I removed the cover of this one to prevent condensation from dripping back down onto the culture. Generally, cultures are stored upside down to prevent this from happening.

This culture is one I began on July 9th, 2008. The bacteria has been stamped onto a ground of tryptic soy agar and is barely visible at this stage. When fully visible the pattern of growth will depict a satellite view of the airstrips and surrounding roads that make up the largest airbase in Iraq, Balad (a.k.a. Camp Anaconda). Balad, one of “enduring bases” is a small highly fortified city with its own neighborhoods and fast food joints like Subway, a Pizza Hut, a Popeye’s and Burger King.

Here is documentation of a culture I began on July 9th, 2008. The bacteria has been stamped onto a ground of tryptic soy agar and is barely visible at this stage.

The bacteria is visible but condensation on the lid of the petri dish is obscuring the pattern of growth. The pattern of growth reflects the airstrips and surrounding roads that make up one of the biggest airbase in Iraq, Al-Asad

The bacteria is visible and the pattern of growth is clear. However, condensation on the lid of the petri dish continues to obscure the pattern of growth. The hot humid summer climate in South Carolina where my lab is located has made the bacteria grow very fast. in other experiments the Serratia has taken three days or more to reach this state of visibility by the unaided eye.

Condensation on the lid of the petri dish threatened to destroy the established pattern of growth which depicts the airbase. I removed the lid to make the culture more visible. While the condensation is no longer an issue, removal of the lid increases the risk of contamination of the sample.

The contingency operating bases are four large bases in Iraq located near Al-Asad, Balad, Talil and Qayyarah. Once called “Enduring Bases” these bases are small cities with highly fortified concrete walls, and other permanent structures. The airbase at Balad “A.K.A camp Anaconda includes it’s own “neighborhoods” including “KBR-land” named after the engineering and construction company and Haliburton subsidiary formerly known as Kellogg Brown & Root. KBR-land is home to thousands of “independent contractors,” non-military personnel contracted to perform functions once handled by military service personnel.
See “The Biggest Base in Iraq Has Small-Town Feel: Most Troops at Balad Never Meet Iraqis” by By Thomas E. Ricks

I’ve set up four petri dishes to be viewed live via webcams, using a homemade combination “fume hood” and light-box, and four DV cameras. The next “petri dish performance” will begin on 07/17/08.

The pattern of airstrips and roads which make up the airbases are clearly visible these three day old cultures. The DV cameras, which are streaming video to a nearby computer are visible at the top of the image.

here I am preparing to swap the petri dishes with new samples. The method used to make the bacteria grow into the desired pattern is a modified version of a soft-lithography technique used in biolabs to control the pattern of cell growth. As any printing technique the results of the process often produce undesirable effects. In this case the pattern is smeared because of how I applied the “printing plate/stamp.”

An American girl displays a souvenir brought back from Iraq by her father, an independent contractor.

Much has been written about the widespread use of private contractors in Iraq. Many jobs which used to be performed by the military are now farmed out to private contractors and private contractors in Iraq now greatly outnumber the number of military personnel. The issues are many: financial and legal accountability are the issues most often sighted by critics. Stories of corruption, cronyism, over-billing, substandard equipment and service abound.

What concerns me is that the practice of contracting out the process of warfare makes war, business as usual. Think about what that means to the average worker: making war is ‘just a job’ to the thousands of people who work for Haliburton, AT&T, Blackwater, not to mention Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, & Burger King and Kraft Foods Inc. That sounds an awful lot like the kind of logic which allowed millions of Nazis to work in death camps, and support the government that ran them. For most, it was just a job that they needed to take care of their families. The idea is so abhorrent, I am sure that whether or not one supports the war is based in large part upon who (what institution) signs one’s paycheck every month. If Uncle Sam signs your check, then you must be a supporter of the war. There is no other ethical position to take on the matter. To be paid by the Uncle Sam and take negative view of the war is a recipe for self destruction. The average human heart might go mad at the thought of it.

Here is a collection of articles on the subject. It is by no means an impartial collection.

• Contractors outnumber troops in Iraq - The figure, higher than reported earlier, doesn’t include security firms. Critics say the issue is accountability.
• The Pentagon’s Private Corps
• Private Military Contractors
• Jeremy Scahill on Blackwater