Field Notes from my Ectopia/BLEND residency

Field Notes from my Ectopia/BLEND residency – Kathy High 2022

My project description – Brittle: Stress Mess uses augmented reality to project the human immune system’s  way of tracking effects of stress on our systems. 

Brittle: Stress Mess proposes to create augmented reality networks of care tracking invisible autoimmune disease stresses. The project includes immunological research on Kathy High’s  own body considering effects of stress on cellular metabolism and escalating disease. From this  research High will develop soundscapes and augmented reality segments riffing off internal  stress. 
High is an interdisciplinary artist working with technology, art, biology. Her art has focused on  empathy and disease. She produces photographs, films, sculpture, and performances posing  queer and feminist questions into areas of bioscience. She lives with multiple invisible  autoimmune diseases. She explores these diseases and different abilities using visual and sound  aesthetics, aesthetics of care, and biotech/art.  

Her goal is to create an interactive work using augmented reality, empathic understanding.  When High first witnessed microscopic images of her own immune T cells reacting to gut  microbial materials, it was uncanny: “There was something poetic in that image– enabling a  new way to consider my health and dis-ease… The image looked like a glitch, static in the  system – trouble that happens over, and over again – like some transformation… perhaps I am  not ‘attacking myself’ through my autoimmunity, but rather I am a mutant, preparing for  another time …This image made me see my biosystem with a more tolerant interpretation,  situating even my ill health as part of a broader environmental entanglement.”

We have lived too long with stress as a driver. High is committed to creating augmented reality  networks of care to help work through our multiple stressers, and track invisible autoimmune  disease, and environmental and cultural stressers as well. 

Brittle: Stress Mess proposes to use as a jumping off point immunological research on Kathy High’s own body considering effects of stress on cellular metabolism and escalating autoimmune diseases. From this research High will develop soundscapes and augmented reality segments riffing off and transforming internal stress. AR will allow for a networked, democratic release of this work and invite participation and play from its users. High will collaborate with feminist, queer coders mindful of critical approaches to working with data, bodies, and vulnerable states of being. Brittle: Stress Mess envisions ways to dissolve ourselves into other spaces, and dance with our stress so that we understand how to work with it. 

With a kind of “perverted logic” (Fanon) we witness our culture not allowing space to the  traumatic effects anxiety and stress have on our psyches and bodies. Working with  immunologists, High documents biological changes that are unforgiving – the non-conforming,  queer ecologies of our immune systems. High develops alternative ways of understanding  effects of effects persistent stress and trauma produce on a cellular level and how pressures of  capitalist and colonialist culture shape chronic illness, perhaps our 21st century human condition.

5.16.2022
Start of residency in IMM. Intro to the lab by immunologist, Dr Luis Graca, Full Professor and  Vice-Dean at FMUL, group leader IMM. 

This is where I worked during my Ectopia/BLEND residency from mid-May to mid-June. 2022. I  worked at the Instituto de Medicina Molecular, IMM, a research institution of the University of  Lisbon, Portugal while I was in residence, pictured top image, the hospital across the street. This bottom image of the workings of the human immune system is what I was interested in diving into – it is also a bit like a mind map of my various tangents and detours I followed along the way. I am grateful to both Marta de Menezes and Luis Graca for all their support.

5.17/18.2022 
Dr. Luis Graça is a researcher at IMM. He was the original host and sponsor of my IMM  residency. I have always been a huge fan of Luis and his passionate commitment to immunology, and immunological histories and philosophies. Given my interests and own research into the human gut microbiome, Luis decided to assign me to a colleague  Dr. Marc Veldhoen’s laboratory for the duration of my residency. Prof. Marc Veldhoen,  PhD, is Head of the Immune Regulation Laboratory. 

I met with Prof. Marc Veldhoen twice (May 17 and 18). He was incredibly generous, and we spoke for a long time each meeting.  

Topics covered included: 
Cell plasticity & creation; Reductivism in science; Synthetic biology – mouse with 14 bacteria; What turns what on and off? How do the systems work together? How do the parts work within the system?
Food is not sexy in science; European grant system, publishing, lies; Costs of publishing; Reality of grant writing; Limitations of science – Mucosal immunology; Naïve T cells effector T cells memory T cells; Immune surveillance – stress signals; Teff-Trm; Extinction theory; Reinvention; Curating bacteria.

5.18.2022

I trailed PhD student, Patricia Campos, in the Veldhoen Lab. On the first day I worked with Patricia, she was testing various mouse organs looking at their RNA. To do this research, Patricia culled 9 mice in total. She was thoughtful and efficient with the killing–cervical dislocation. The pee from the previous mouse on the paper towel below the rack seemed to scare/freak out the next mouse. Unfortunately, she misidentified one mouse and killed it before she realized that she had made a mistake. (PC: “shit, shit,  shit”). I thought these mice killings had not affected me too much, but that night I felt it deeply. The scientists are sensitive and not happy to be working with mice. But they see no alternative. That night I said thanks to each mouse, thanking them for their work. 
Patricia dissected each one of the mice, taking its ileum, spleen and pancreas. She gave me an anatomy lesson at the end of her process, opening up the entire animal to reveal all its organs. The heart was still beating.  

Toe identification system for the research mice.

The gene that Patricia was looking for, GLP1 – should be present in the pancreas and the ileum, but not in the spleen – so the spleen is the negative control. She tested a variety of mice – 2 wild type mice, 3 Het, 3 knock out = 8 samples total. They were all identified by a cutback toe (done when they are pups and feel no pain), and sometimes an ear punch as well (done when they are older).

Protocol.

Used Qiagen kit to process the organs – using their buffers and filter tubes for RNA.  Broke up the organs (using a router). Then processed them. Ultimately took the materials to Nanodrop machine. Results for all. 

Patricia showed me the program PyRAT where they register every mouse that they work  with. They know the lineage of the mice (parents, and parents’ parents, etc.), who takes care of them, cage numbers, the reason for using mice in experiments (in this case: 1) why were the mice sacrificed: took organs, 2) how much pain did they endure, subthreshold  (no pain), 3) how did they die, cervical dislocation). Patricia edited the mice off the  PyRAT system. “And they are wiped out of the system.” 

This notion of system loss, being deleted, is something I think of a lot. In this case, the sacrificed lab mice were culled and then eliminated from the computer database. I  often think about how computers work and supplement our daily thinking and development. How much is forgotten. What to remember… Also, we all have fear of being “deleted,” eliminated from the program, and so this makes this deletion from the  PyRAT system too close for me, frighteningly present, and hinting as to what might happen when we die and are gone from the system. 

Eimeria bacteria cycle in mouse:

5.19.2022 
Another day in the lab. Continued to process the small intestine (ileum) and spleen with  Patricia. Problem with ileum material and RNA filters – they got clogged maybe from the mucus on the small intestines. After scraping out the filters and re-doing, Patricia seemed to get results.  

Patricia’s thesis is on the relationship between the microbiota and immune cells in the gut. 

I am thinking about the materiality of the work being done with the mice. Also, the intimacy with this material. While it is dislocated from a body, it is still viscous and  colored (“pancreas is pink not yellow!”), smelly in parts. It is so reductive – breaking things down to their RNA and DNA. How to relate? 

Greening of the labs? Single use waste plastic products in science laboratories is a  huge pollution problem. In an effort to cut down on lab plastic use, these IMM scientists in the Veldhoen Lab reuse the plastic materials that have not been used for cells – epindorf tubes, 50ml, 15ml, etc. They wash them in water and bleach mixture with soap. Dry. They have never had a problem with contamination! Brilliant. 

Dr Veldhoen tested positive for Covid-19 – the omni variant. He will be out of the office for at least 5 days. And then he is traveling. I will not see him for a long while. I hope he is okay.

I volunteered to be a subject for one test. They are testing GLP1 in human blood  samples. Looking to see if GLP1 is increased (hormone). They need human samples  from people with IBD who are without treatment (antibiotics of biologics). I offered to  give blood because at this moment I am without treatment! – Update 5.23.2022 – my  veins were too small for the technician to be able to draw any blood. I could not  participate in the trial. It was so disappointing.

5.20.2022 
Dirty lab mice? Lab mice are too clean. Studies introducing wild mice into their living  quarters, or letting the mice out into the wild, provides new immunity that lab mice do  not have. They are more resilient to certain pathogens. Not to over- simplify.  

• Nature 556, 16-18 (2018) – doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-03916-9 

“Squeaky clean mice could be ruining research” – Most lab mice are kept in pristine conditions, but a few immunologists think a dose of dirt could make them a better model of human disease. 
“Human – anti-mouse” Elisa 

“Read today about an outbreak of Monkeypox that seems to be spreading between continents.  One of the scientists discussing it described the need to remain humble in what we assume  about this virus – that has little known about it. Humility is a perfect word for how I feel when  attempting to study the immune system. It is so vast and complex – and unknown.  
Even with my own fragile human system – I can see how the inflammation spreads and causes  multiple problems for me – from persistent diarrhea, to skin problems, to weakening, to gut  cramping/bloating and pain, to joint pain, to shortness of breath, to depression. Because of its  worsening symptoms of late it has been harder and harder to push beyond it. I have been taking  a symptomatic over-the-counter drug for the last few days – Immodium, to counter the effects  of persistent diarrhea. Surprisingly it helped a lot. When I stopped taking the Immodium, everything came cascading back. I think before this I had not been as conscious of the  symptoms as I see them now. Amazing what one can get used to when it is chronic.”
So, what causes this exaggerated response from my immune system? How can I retrain it?

From: Abolins, S., King, E., Lazarou, L. et al. The comparative immunology of wild and  laboratory mice, Mus musculus domesticus. Nat Commun 8, 14811 (2017).  https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms14811

“Comparison of the immune function of wild and laboratory mice is also required to reveal  both the utility and the limitations of laboratory mice as broadly applicable and relevant  immunological models.” 

Need to use the Thermocycler to convert mRNA to cDNA (Complimentary DNA) 
Use kit – has buffer and bases that will bind with the bases. Also has florescences and enzymes. 20x RT Enzyme Mix (Reverse Transcription) Themocycle RNA to amplify it. 
Short day here at the lab – Patricia just prepped the tubes for the Thermocycler. And loaded it. 

Calculate for 96 well plate for PCR
Looking for GLP1 receptor and GCG (gene that encodes for GLP1 receptor) and HPRT (general).
Make calculations for arranging the 96 plate with controls (see below).
“Pipetting and praying.” – Patricia

Bacteria information can read by…
PCR – reads Family
Sequencing – reads Species
Shotgun – reads Species and genes they encode

I am confused and trying to find a way through all this immunology research… frustrated.  Argh! Where to go with it all!?? 

What is it I want from immunology? What is the history of autoimmunity? 

Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915) – Pioneer in “humoral immunology,” antibodies specific for every possible foreign (non-self) antigen before being exposed to antigens. His theory of “horror autotoxicus” summarized that autotoxins would not be produced (1906). This was believed for a  long time…  Noel Rose (working in Buffalo at the lab of Ernest Witebsky) – 1956 discovered the existence of  thyroid autoantibodies in rabbits (research started in 1953 but paper released in 1956). Artist Carolyn Lazard (US) links autoimmunity to capitalism.

Lazard, Carolyn. “How to be a Person in the Age of Autoimmunity” incredible article describing her diagnosis with Crohn’s disease, and her struggles to think with her autoimmune condition. 

“I resisted starting Humira for this very reason. My doctor explained that the way to eliminate  the pain and inflammation was to clamp down my overactive immune system. Doing this  would prevent it from attacking my joints and my intestines, leaving me painfree. But it didn’t  take care of the underlying problem: my immune system is confused. Eliminating my immune  system sounded like a bad—an incomplete—idea…. Here I was in the hospital, having my body completely compartmentalized— treated not as a  living organism but as an alienated collection of symptoms. What I realized through these  visits, and my increased aversion to biomedical intervention (even while it was keeping me  alive) was a resistance to a cyborgian present. I was in a futuristic nightmare, watching my  body change and having no control over it; getting postindustrial noise MRIs; having a blood  transfusion and feeling two pints of someone else’s cold blood course through my veins; getting  a colonoscopy, where I was knocked out and a fiberoptic camera was stuck up my ass and  through my intestines. I asked for a copy of the video, a request they did not take seriously, nor  find humorous… The increased virtuality of labor, not unlike the administering of biomedical technology, is meant to make life more convenient. Increased ease of life is the ideal that we  assume technology fulfills. And yet as advanced capitalism has deemed the physical body an  obsolete, outdated tool, the body still remains. It continues to fail under capitalist conditions  and gets pathologized as illness. The body is another inconvenience that must be enhanced and optimized… Capitalism is aneconomic system that assesses bodies in terms of labor power, designating certain bodies as useful and others as not. Physical or mental impairment as an excuse for exclusion from social  or economic life is endlessly reinforced under this system... So what does this resistance by way of illness look like? Sometimes it looks like leisure. Ah yes, leisure: the time we have when we are not at work, the time that we own. According to the  Situationists, leisure is a cruel trick: it’s our precious time sold back to us as a commodity.  After my many hospitalizations, there was always a period of convalescence. Convalescence is a  bourgeois activity much like leisure. Sontag writes, “The Romantics invented Invalidism as a  pretext for leisure, and for dismissing bourgeois obligations in order to live for one’s art. It was  a way of retiring from the world without having to take responsibility for the decision.” I was at  times grateful for catching a break from my own high standards for myself. I imagined myself a  nineteenth century waif relaxing in a Swiss sanatorium. I was able to convalesce for many  reasons, including the fact that I lived at home and was financially supported by my mother.  Under the Affordable Care Act, I am covered under her insurance plan for six more months… At the risk of sounding condescending and corny, I will say that I feel simultaneously late in the  game and over the game.“

Lazard, Carolyn. “How to be a Person in the Age of Autoimmunity”. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55c40d69e4b0a45eb985d566/t/58cebc9dc534a59fbdbf98 c2/1489943709737/HowtobeaPersonintheAgeofAutoimmunity+%281%29.pdf 

This work of Lazard’s is so revealing as to how she processed her Crohn’s disease. I can relate  to so much of what she writes – even concerning the “forever” drug Humira which I will start  as soon as I return home after this residency. I have avoided taking it for all these years, but my  doctor warned me that if I did not do this something bad could happen (mentioning the “C”  word – cancer). 

5.21/22.2022

Joined Marta to the southern village of San Luis and Cultivmos Cultura!
Beautiful two days!

5.23.2022 
Came to lab. Tried to donate blood to protocol as a non-medicated Crohn’s patient.  
Sadly, the technician could not find my veins. She tried twice, but the veins alluded her.  So, she stopped. I was disappointed. 
Otherwise, I followed Patricia as she prepared materials for the PCR. She was quite tired  and needed to do much of the prep by herself as she didn’t want me to distract her.  
I noticed researchers all walking around the halls with plastic bags of lab mice. They  were taking them to the CO2 room to euthanize then. Some looked a bit embarrassed  as I caught their eye, or maybe I was just imagining that. I admire Patricia for killing her  mice by hand, in contact with their deaths, one at a time, and without as much anxiety  for the mice. 

5.24.2022 – 5.26.2022 
Patricia tested positive for Covid and let me know. I stayed home and worked. 
I took a deep dive into immunology and philosophy. Read patients’ accounts which are fearful, frustrated and anxious. I too fall into that category, as I am coming up to the turning point of me becoming immunocompromised by starting to take injections of  Humira, a biologic for the Crohn’s. No one at the lab has talked about patients – except  Luis and Marc. The lab work is all so removed from medicine in many ways. And  philosophers don’t know enough science. And while it could be said that Immunology  research is reductive, it is systematically complex. Systems theory.

5.26.2022 
Went to Marta’s exhibition Alter(Accion) 2.0 in the museum in Badajox, Spain. Beautiful show!

5.27-5.29.2022 
Over the weekend we went to … to the Farmhouse for Marta’s birthday!!

5.30.2022 

Worked at home… read many science articles many by Marc’s labs.

Commensals in intestines living in harmony with the host (Artis, 2008);
Workings of intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) and their interaction with cells and act as mediators  of the immune system;
Intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs) – reside close to the epithelium – one IEL for every 4-10 IEC Interactions? Dysregulation = inflammatory disease and cancer.

ARYL Hydrocarbon receptor;
AhR ligands in intestines;
Cruciferous vegetable intake = AhR increase! 

Memory T Cells:  
– T (Tcm) – Central memory T cells – found in secondary lymphoid cells • T (Tem) – Effector memory T cells – found passing through nonlymphoid tissues • T (Trm) – Tissue resident memory T cells 
T (Treg) – Type 1 regulatory T cells – express transcriptor factor T-BET, promote generation of  CD8 and Trm cells 

Switching on and off 

Trm possibly to become “tissue interacting” memory T cells. 
Tissue – resident memory 
Trm heterogeneity 
Whole tissue immunology 

Went to the grocery store… 
Walked past an older man in supermarket. A strange, distorted sound was coming from him.  His hearing aids had run out of battery and were making a very loud white noise! I caught the  man’s eye as I walked past at one point and could see that he couldn’t hear this… Much like the development of our autoimmune diseases perhaps? 

Plasticity and porousness 

“Elements in the Philosophy of Biology” by Thomas Pradeu: 
Cross-species comparative immunology 
Immunology is one of the main devices insuring cohesion of organism and the delineation of its  boundaries. 
Self non-self discrimination.

5.31.2022 

Marc’s team – Lab meeting. 

Lab presentations:

• “Aspergillus infection model + Trm cells”  
Thinking through anomalies in experiments 
• “E. Verifmiformis infection of OLFR56KO Mice” 
Argument about results 
• “GLP -1R KO mice contruction” – Patricia  
Unusual results – maybe lab sent wrong mice? 

Without getting into too much detail – I will say that the lab meeting had a really  productive atmosphere. People presented and others trouble shot the results, asking  questions and making suggestions of ways to approach the data and next steps. At  every turn there was something still unclear, some rock unturned, some piece of information that was incorrect or uncertain. Whether it related to the specifics of a lab  mouse population (check endogenous population, or polyclonal mice expression, or  checking the primer for PCR and those results), or otherwise. 

At one point one woman scientist was correcting another and saying that her results  were incorrect or methods faulty. She called on Marc to “help her out (and get off his  phone!)”. Lol! Discussion about polyclonal mice and their properties. 

It makes me think of system theory and the ways that each thing is built upon another.  

I went home to continue reading/research:
“Elements in the Philosophy of Biology” by Thomas Pradeu: 

Self/Nonself 1980s immunology was: 
1. Named “The science of self-nonself discrimination” 
2. Immunology plays key role in definition of biological individuality based on research  autoimmunity, immunological tolerance and symbiosis 
3. Arguments demonstrating central contribution of immunology to biological  individuality 
4. Function of immune system sheds light on a set of heterogeneous constituents can be  turned into an integrated individual 
5. Combine immunology lessons (re: biological individuality) with lessons from other  biological fields 

Terms: 
Endogenous = growing within an organ 
Phagocytosis of dead cells = larger particles, such as bacteria and dead/dying cells, are  engulphed and processed within a membrane-bound vesicle celled the phagosome. 

3 main activities of immune system: 
1. Filtering over entry 
2. Filtering over presence 
3. Promotion of cooperation

Immune system exerts influence throughout the body. 

Autoimmunity: 
– Which aspect of the regulatory machine that normally keeps autoimmune responses in check has been  disturbed, and why? (e.g. why do regulatory T cells no longer downregulate the activity of  potentially harmful autoreactive T cells?) 
– What triggers an immune response against the self? (e.g. why do self-reactive effector T cells  develop in this organism?) 

6.1.2022 In lab with Patricia 

Question: Were the mice used in her experiment really knock outs as the KO and Hets had  the same results? 
This was Patricia’s main project – so now she is stalled with her PhD completion. It  took her 8 months to obtain the original knock out mice from lab in UK. So, there is not  enough time to get more. 
I told P that she must be disappointed. And she answered: “It is science!” So many  failures in science to get to your successes. So many experiments that do not work and  need to be repeated.  

6.1.2022 Work in lab with Patricia

Patricia is counting parasites
Vermiformis parasite – similar to the plasmarium parasite (which causes malaria) Eimeria
Infects mice and chickens – not humans. And infects the gut.
Parasites on counter slide:

Patricia will load 32 parasites into each mouse (this is another colleague’s experiment). The parasites will be administered via a tube into the mouth of the mouse down to its stomach to make sure the parasites are inserted completely.
Parasites are transmitted through feces otherwise.

P will infect the mice today and check on them on Monday (even though it is a holiday!). The tools of science – these living creatures.

Reading “Philosophy of Immunology” by Thomas Pradeu:

Cancer
Immunosurveillance (Burnet 1970)
Neoplastic cells (Thomas 1982)
Immunoediting (Dunn 2002, Schreiber 2011)
– Elimination
– Equilibrium
– Escape
Immunotherapy

“The wound that does not heal” (Dvorak 1986; Schafer and Werner 2008)

Neuroimmunology
Psychoneuroimmunity (Ader 1981)
– Psychosomatic medicine
Inflammatory reflex (Chanan 1970)
Neuroimune interactions — microbiome, gut-brain-axis
Common evolutionary origin for immune and neuroendocrine systems
Nervous, immune, endocrine systems in animals

—- Inheritance!!!

6.2.2022 In Lab with Patricia
Protocol looking at mouse FMT (fecal microbial transplantation) (up my alley!)
6 different samples:

FMT:
– Fresh feces
– Frozen feces
– Metasolifer (?) feces
– Autoclaved feces (no bacteria)
– 14 bacteria (human and mouse bacteria from mouse designed in USA) PBS (control) (medium)

Introduced antibiotic to different groups: 
– Antibiotic given – introduce Eimeria – continue antibiotic
– Antibiotic given – introduce Eimeria – stop antibiotic
– Antibiotic given – introduce Eimeria – on day 2 after Eimeria give FMT – and on day 4 after introduction of Eimeria give FMT – stop antibiotic

Probiotics vs prebiotics

6.3.2022

6.6.2022
Automimmune vs autoinflammatory diseases

My auto inflammatory diseases:
Crohn’s
Sarcoidosis
Asthma
Hypothyroid

“Molecular Decolonization: An Indigenous Microcosm Perspective of Planetary Health” by Nicole Redvers, Michael Yellow Bird, Diana Quinn, Tyson Yunkaporta, Kerry Arabena. 2020

Molecular decolonization – an Indigenous practice: “A method back to original selves, and therefore to our planetary origin story.”

“A strategy that can be used to overcome ‘binarism’.”

Buffalo Bird Woman – renowned traditional Hidatsa gardener born in1839, said her people
believed that “the corn plant had souls, as children have souls. We cared for our corn in those days, as we would care for a child.”

Western diet has produced “diseases of civilization” or what is known in evolutionary biology as “mismatch diseases.”
Traditional farming and ritual fasting

Indigenous Objiwe word “windigo” highlighted over consumption and greed Western lifestyle and extractive relationship to the earth

Microbial microcosm = compelling narrative that situates our human biome in the biome of the planet

Microbial communities have sentient purpose with diverse habitats from soil to human body
Adverse experiences in utero – produce genomic changes that can be transmitted across generations – intergenerational resilience

First 1000 Days – Australian movement

Country and Land acknowledgments
Ecosystem health (macro and micro)
“Unified microbial communities” = interconnectedness of all things

Being in nature versus being of nature

Aquatic viruses

The gut = the seat of our big spirit
“You are an organism in dynamic, co-evolutionary relation with its habitat.”

My own history of trauma and food:
It started with my mother taking daily shots in her ass (administered by my father) while she was pregnant with me. It was most likely DES, a synthetic estrogen commonly prescribed to help with miscarriages in 1940s-1950s. DES is also an endocrine disruptor.
I don’t think I was breast fed for very long.
We grew up on “convenience food” (as opposed to “fast food”). My father worked for Campbell Soup company. He bought a lot of their soup. We had a whole wall of soup on shelves in the basement of our house. (My father went to the “seconds” store and bought dented cans, cans with off labels, etc.) We used the soup in most of our cooking – for sauces, as well as soup.
In 1955, Campbell’s acquired Swanson’s. So, we also ate a lot of Swanson TV dinners. I also ate copious amounts of sugary cereal on Saturday mornings while watching cartoons on television – Frosted Flakes, Trix and others.

My mother made Krispy Treats for my little brother – made with Rice Crispies cereal and Fluffernutter marshmallow.
My mother also made “fake” apple pie out of Ritz Crackers – called “Ritz Mock Apple Pie”
By 9 years old my pediatrician put me on a diet. I had to drink only skim milk and could eat no butter.
The first recipe I learned to cook on my own was hot dogs and baked beans. We baked them together in a small casserole dish. The recipe ingredients included adding brown sugar, ketchup, and mustard to the canned baked beans.
My mother used Crisco in baking and frying foods. Crisco was made from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil.
I loved “Manwiches” which were also known as a “sloppy Joe” sandwich – hamburger meat with canned tomato/onion sauce on a bun.
I loved cherry Cokes and Ritz peanut butter crackers – often ate that for lunch.
Campbell’s also purchased Pepperidge Farm in 1961. They made Goldfish crackers starting in 1962. We ate Pepperidge Farm cookies and Goldfish all the time.

Other foods included:
Creamed chipped beef on white toast
Miracle Whip
Cool Whip Oscar Mayer Bologna
Jello molds
Spaghetti O’s
Pringle potato chips

My mother was diagnosed with colo-rectal cancer in 1974.
I developed Crohn’s disease in 1975.

Environmental factors:
Penicillin introduced in 1942 (I am allergic to Penicillin)
Teflon was introduced by DuPont in 1950s

“Chronic Illness as Critique…” by Giulia Smith
“How sickness acts as a lens magnifying the structural fault lines that organize capitalist societies.”

6.7.2022 

My Anthropocene story – one of many stories about consumer consumption and more. It is a  mini story about the failings of capitalism 

Read Butler’s “Rethinking Vulnerability and Resistance” 2014 
“Sick Woman Theory” Hedna 

Alison Kafer “Cripping the Cyborg”: 
“Bringing a disability consciousness to the Cyborg, requires an acknowledgement that  human/machine interactions are not always beneficial or pleasurable.” 

GSmith: “…Capturing the spirit of cripistemology as a counter hegemonic discipline guided by,  in Jack Halberstam’s words, ‘modes of not knowing, unknowing, and failing to know.’” (- in  reference to Jesse Darling’s work “The Ballad of Saint Jerome”) 

In lab with Patricia:

PCR reading:
Earlier reading = meant more DNA
Fresh to frozen fecal samples – pretty much the same
Just metabolites – did amplify bacteria (even though it shouldn’t have done so) Results from all samples had bacteria in them– meaning there was CONTAMINATION – because bacteria was also in PBS results and control where it shouldn’t be Possible contamination in the distilled water used (because it was across in all samples)

Nanodrop results:
Showed that the PCR was contaminated
Fresh and frozen had lots of bacteria
Fresh = 93 ng/ul
Frozen = 121 ng/ul
14 species of (human) bacteria = 100 ng/ul

Patricia will repeat microbiota with the mice – creating dysbiosis with antibiotic, introducing the Eimeria to activate the inflammation and immune cells, and introducing FMT to see results
Possible difference with Gram– and Gram+ bacteria

Reading:
Jamie Lorimer – environmental geographer “The Probiotic Planet”

6.8.2022 work with Patricia in the lab – last day 

P took spleens from 8 mice to process, and intestines 

Questions P asks is: how community of gut microbiota work with the immune system? “It doesn’t really look like science” processing mucus materials through the screens to filter Adjusting protocols.

Said goodbye to Patricia and thanked her. 

I am deeply indebted to ECTOPIA/BLEND and IMM for this time to think, conjure relationships and new ideas. My work attempts to provoke new understandings of our materiality,  fragility and resilience. I will continue this research on the effects of constant anxiety, a state we experienced throughout the pandemic and an outgrowth of our advanced capitalist theater.  

Ideas: 
How to experiment on myself? 
Images of childhood foods (extractive processes) 
Molecular decolonization – rituals for the cells for the microbiome 
– (Microbial communities have sentient purpose) 
Canary in coalmine / sensitive beings on the front line of autoimmunity 
Late capitalism – its collapse 
Biodiversity versus dysbiosis