PHANTOMS
Making these artworks began by trying to understand how MRI physics interacts with bodily matter. Phantoms exist to test and enhance biomedical imaging modalities, they are cyborgs due to their ability to represent but never be an organic body (Haraway, 2016a). Materials such as water, fats, gels, sugars, proteins, natural waxes and polysaccharides are found in or produced by organisms. Latex which is produced by a plant is an interesting substance to use. Other materials such as saline, PVC, distilled water, antiseptic, and gelling agents return NMR signals that match those of bodily substances. Materials that can do this are called tissue-mimicking materials (TMMs).
I experimented by injecting liquid gelatin, latex and plant matter into different compartments of devices used in brewing called bubbler stoppers. They were cut at different angles using a saw, placed in alginate moulds at different angles and encapsulated in either wax or resin. Polysaccharide gel was an important TMM to consider as it “forms part of the tissue cell walls, intercellular coating spaces, and connective tissue” and “some of the internal components of living organisms are like the gel” (Ahmad, et al. 2020). A gel can be made with agar, pectin or gelatin and can be injected into a phantom organ.
I soaked cut pieces of cellulose sponge in pectin jelly containing differently concentrated saline to mimic salt variations found in organisms. Once set, I submerged the sponges in latex and let it cure. TMMs were assembled into organs using bubbler stoppers and other plastic vessels and then sealed off to protect them from the effects of the resin or wax later on in the process. After being cut at various angles and sealed at one end they could contain numerous substances. The water content in pineapple slices and other plant matter ensured a strong signal in the MRI environment. Agar is found in plant cells and used in scientific contexts for the propagation of cell cultures. I used dissecting tools to make each organ and carefully positioned, pushed and pulled ingredients such as lichens, pineapple slices, shea butter and a sponge soaked in water into the dissected bubbler stoppers. I then injected latex and gelatin into the bubbler stoppers and through their various compartments.
An approach called ‘Assemblage Theory’ offers a way of doing practice-based research that benefits from charting, mapping and exploring the extent of practice and how it is entangled with materials, processes, spaces, communities and objects. These drawings map how TMMs are used and interact as if they were organs. The phantoms were scanned with Dr Bernard Siow at the MRI department of the Francis Crick Institute and at the Future Technology Center at Portsmouth to test reconstruction algorithms created by Dr Anush Kolakalur. Scanning as part of my artistic practice and used in scientific experiments was an interesting opportunity to bring scientific methods into the arts and apply a creative artefact to scientific studies.