Anna Dumitriu is an artist whose work is defined by a multifaceted curiosity. She engages with various media — from textiles, sculpture, biology, to interactive installations — and often collaborates with scientists in pioneering laboratories.
Dumitriu’s hybrid approach creates new overlaps between science and art. She challenges traditional boundaries, questioning how we deal with infectious diseases, bacteria, robotics and synthetic biology. Whilst pushing for innovative thinking around emerging technologies, she is also very focused on ethical considerations, how new narratives can help people relate and understand microbiology, and how we can explore potential new futures.
Q > Tell us about your most unconventional project.
A > Although it seems very normal to me, I suppose others would say it is my “Plague Dress”. It is a 1665-style dress made from raw silk and hand-dyed with walnut husks in reference to the famous herbalist of the era, Nicholas Culpeper, who recommended walnuts as a treatment for Plague.
The dress is appliqued with original period embroideries which I impregnated with the DNA of Yesinia pestis bacteria (Plague), which I extracted from killed bacteria in the laboratory of the National Collection of Type Cultures (NCTC) at Public Health England where I am artist in residence. The NCTC is the oldest and most historical collection of pathogenic bacteria in the world.
The dress stuffed and surrounded by bunches of lavender which were historically carried under people’s noses during the Great Plague of London to cover the stench of infection, and prevent the disease, which was believed to be caused by “bad air” or “miasmas”. The roll, a piece of padding typically worn under the skirt to puff it out, contains a pungent mixture of herbs and spices that would have been stuffed into beak-like masks of Plague doctors.
Q > Which areas of study do you think are breaking new ground?
A > Microbiology and biotechnology are having a golden age, which is why I am so excited to work with them. And also because they are so important to the future, from preventing disease to improving food security, especially as climates change.
Robotics and AI are also fascinating — there is an increasing momentum in this area and we are closer than ever to living and working alongside robots. This is why it’s such a significant area for artistic exploration.
Q > Surprising contradictions — tell us about things that conflict you and inspire you at the same time.
A > I’m happy dealing with contradictions and things that don’t fully make sense.
Q > Tell us about lessons you refuse to learn and values you hold on to.
A > Well I don’t know if it’s about refusing to learn — I’m constantly learning. But I always make sure I put the artistic perspective first when I’m giving talks, and I always ask questions (in any setting) when I don’t understand something. I don’t just nod when people assume I know something if I don’t — that’s how you learn, but it takes some courage to admit you don’t know something, I guess.
Q > Which things do you think the people in your community, city or country often take for granted?
A > This would have to be antibiotics. Nowadays, bacteria are increasingly developing antibiotic resistance driven by inappropriate use of these key medicines. People can help with this by not demanding antibiotics unless they are absolutely necessary — for instance they don’t work on the common. Fewer antibiotics have been developed in recent years too but new biotechnologies such as CRISPR DNA modification techniques or whole genome sequencing will help with this.
The future is not entirely bleak but action is needed now and many health experts have said that this is as big an issue for humanity as climate change. And of course climate change and antibiotic resistance can’t be viewed as separate problems as global disease demographics change with the climate. I worked a lot with these themes in projects like Make Do and Mend and The Romantic Disease.
Q > Challenging conversations, introspective moments, inspirational triggers, political views, social shifts: which topics do you find yourself debating these days?
A > Antibiotic resistance and synthetic biology are topics I focus on a lot. These are important societal issues. Similarly I’m also currently exploring what our future co-existence with intelligent embodied robots might be, based on a deep investigation of human and robot interaction and movement, focusing on proximity, touch, body language and interactivity with socially-aware robots. This is part of an EU-funded STARTS residency in Switzerland with Schindler — Cyberspecies Proximity.
Q > The most pivotal moment you’ve had?
A > Your question assumes some lucky break or opportunity but I think it’s rather about focusing deeply and working, researching, making and learning constantly — art is a process. I’m a great advocate for what I call “unnecessary research”. In fact, I founded an art/science group called The Institute of Unnecessary Research.
Q > Opening conversations around taboos — where would you start?
A > I think we need a deeper discussion about genetically modified (GM) foods and to consider cisgenic modification — where the genes are moved around in the same species in a form that could occur, albeit more slowly, in traditional plant breeding. There are a lot of misunderstandings and people are not informed about its significant benefits. I’m exploring this in a new project called “Biotechnology from the Blue Flower” in collaboration with Alex May and the EU-funded CHIC project.
Dumitriu was the 2018 President of the Science and the Arts Section of the British Science Association. She holds research fellowships in the School of Computer Science at the University of Hertfordshire, and Brighton and Sussex Medical School. She is co-author of Trust Me, I’m an Artist, a book and major Creative Europe-funded project exploring the ethical implications of artists in bioscientific laboratories. She has created work using synthetic biology and CRISPR gene editing to explore issues around infectious diseases in many international labs including Technion in Haifa and the University of California Irvine.
