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Normally, you wouldn't want to think about germs when you sit down to a meal, but design studio MADLAB brings bacteria right over the dining table with their Bacterioptica chandelier. The suspended light fixture is comprised of 15,000 feet of fiber optic cables connecting a variety of petri dishes. Its modular composition includes hundreds of metal rods, couplings, caps, and canisters, allowing its owner to construct a unique structure with an infinite number of combinations.
Bacterioptica is described as its own sort of living organism meant to reflect the various life forms that are significant to the family who proudly displays it. Light is filtered through the transparent discs filled with bacterial growth that the owner can install themselves. The design project's statement reads: "It is alive in a very literal sense: it cultivates, distributes and illuminates the bacterial life of its family members by way of a branching assembly of metal rods, glass petri dishes and fiber optics.
"Bacterioptica is adaptive by design, not only in its form and mechanics, but more importantly, in the way it evolves. Step by-step instructions guide the family through procedures to experiment with and prepare each bacterial sample for its place in the chandelier. Whether featuring bacteria from the skin, the yard or the dinner guests, Bacterioptica is continually changing in shape and luminosity."
