Super-Organism: The Living Microbiome

Super-Organism: The Living Microbiome is a video artwork by Alex May and Anna Dumitriu, commissioned by Wellcome Collection for The Evening Standard “1000” award ceremony at The Francis Crick Institute. The piece brings together close-up footage of bacterial colonies growing across agar with imagery of the human body, making microbial activity visible at a scale that feels immediate rather than abstract.

What matters in this work is the way May uses moving image to shift microbiology into an experiential register. The bacteria do not appear as illustration or scientific evidence alone. They are shown as active, spreading forms with their own patterns of competition, adaptation, and occupation, which gives the work both a visual intensity and a clear conceptual focus.

Within the wider practice, this piece is important because it turns hidden biological processes into something that can be encountered publicly through digital media. It connects scientific imaging, bodily perception, and questions of coexistence, showing how technology can reshape what we notice, what we understand, and how we imagine the living systems already moving through and around us.