Ghost in the Cell, 2015

In Ghost in the Cell, an installation by the artist collective BCL, living heart cells function as a pars pro toto for the idea of the creation of a physical version of the popular Japanese character Hatsune Miku. This virtual idol made her debut in the form of a voice synthesis computer program and through her immense popularity started to play an important role in Japanese popular and social culture. As a mass-mediated, semi living entity, she blurs the space between flesh and virtual idols.

In Ghost in the Cell, Hatsune Miku's real, living body is represented by a beating heart, which itself is represented by beating heart cells. The artist collective BCL invited the public to create and edit a synthetic genome of Hatsune Miku based on an average Japanese female genome. From this synthetic genome some relevant parts were biologically synthesised and inserted into human iPS cells, which were then differentiated into cardiomyocytes (beating heart cells).

BCL
°2005, Tokyo

BCL is an artistic research platform formed by the artists Georg Tremmel (°1977) and Shiho Fukuhara (°1976) in 2005. As a collective, they explore the relations, congruences and differences of biological and cultural codes through artistic interventions, social hacking and research. In general, both artists are interested in the relationship between art and science. In particular, their works of art focus on media art and bio science where they explore the social implications that the adoption and application of biotechnology will create. In contrast to their speculative and forward-looking research, BCL’s projects always situate themselves in the present social and cultural context. Georg Tremmel en Shiho Fukuhara are based in Tokyo.