Updated 8 June 2022
Linda Dusman
University of Maryland Baltimore County
Infinite Transformations (in a Suitcase)
Location: Janet Hennessy Dilenschneider Gallery
Infinite Transformations in a Suitcase is a multimedia installation that creates a mediative space inviting reflection on the resilience of culture. At its center is a glass of poetry-infused wine created using genetically modified yeast cells whose DNA contains an encoding of a 14th-century Sufi poem by Hafiz of Shiraz, surrounded by video of it being written in Farsi calligraphy. The poem is a meditation on love and timelessness and is translated as: “One whose heart is vitalized by Love, never dies; Our continuity is written on the face of time.” Next to the glass of wine, another screen displays an animation of overlapping layers combining aperiodic quasicrystal geometric patterns from medieval Islamic mosaics with microscopic images of transgenic yeast cells. Quasicrystal patterns cover continuously and infinitely a two-dimensional plane. While the mathematical basis of quasicrystals was discovered in the West in the mid-twentieth century, recent evidence have shown that they have been used by medieval Persian architects to cover religious buildings with connotations of visually representing infinity. The space is surrounded by ambient spatialized audio emanating from the poetry itself: a reading of the Farsi poem passes through reductive filtering processes until it approaches a sine tone, the fundamental building block of all sound. Music for a bass flute surrounds the listener, and morse code sounds out the poetry in high-pitched sine tones. While prohibited by Islam, winemaking has often been used by Sufi poets as a metaphor for spiritual transformation. By turning the metaphor of wine into material reality, we draw parallels with the ethically ambiguous practice of genetically modifying living organisms. To realize the project, we have used a transdisciplinary approach that combines techniques in DIY synthetic biology, spatial audio composition, and video art.