Painting with bacteria

Erich Schopf’s paintings are incubated in a BINDER chamber

When talk turns to bacteria, most people think of infections and disinfectants. Erich Schopf thinks of colour. The Austrian paints with bacteria.

Erich Schopf earns his living as a bacteriologist at the University of Vienna. The fact that bacteria use pigments to protect themselves against UV radiation gave him the idea to use them as paint. He gathers his raw material from the ground, water and air – mostly in Vienna, but also during travels that take him all the way to places like New Zealand, Greenland and Iceland. In their nutrient solution, the bacteria are colourless at first. It is only after they are cultured in an incubation chamber that the colours come forth. The most beautiful ones are taken up by Erich Schopf in his "palette" and given an artistic name that describes their effect and often relates to their place of origin. Snorri-Orange, for example, is named after the Old Icelandic poet and historian Snorri Sturluson. Schopf found this bacterium in West Iceland in Sturluson’s house after it was uncovered by archaeologists.

In his artwork, the “Picasso of Protozoa” (P.M. Magazin) applies the bacteria in their nutrient solution to a “canvas”. Because bacteria do not always harmonize, the artist not only paints “blindly” with the colourless liquid, but also acts as "director". Initially, the living paintings take on colour and form in his imagination only. They don't actually become visible until after being placed in a BINDER KB series refrigerated microbiological incubator at an exact temperature between 23.5°C and 25.3°C, which Schopf adjusts depending on the creation and the desired effect. The KB is an all-round talent among the BINDER simulation chambers that excels in maintaining temperature homogeneity. It offers an enormous temperature span from -10°C to 100°C, and is impressive in its reliability. “Maintaining the exact temperature is critical,” says Schopf. “Even the slightest variations in temperature would be fatal to my creations. That’s why it’s incredibly important to me that I can rely on my BINDER – and it has never let me down.”

The incubator promotes optimal cell growth. After about two days, the artwork begins to take on colour due to the exponential growth of the applied biomass. After completion of this development process, the bacteriographic painting is subjected to a preservation procedure that leaves only the colour pigments behind on the canvas.

Most bacteriographic paintings are in private hands. In the near future, however, five works will be put on permanent display at the Natural History Museum in Vienna.