Deliberate Maladjustment by Microorganisms: A Medium for Images or Luminous Bacteria

In this paper, we seek to uncover the new significance of the phrase “deliberately maladjusted,” which is borrowed from video artists of the 1970s and their critical interventions (Vasulka, 1970), in the act of Microbial Image-Processing, using two artworks by the authors: A Medium for Images or Luminous Bacteria and ‘イ’(1926) by BioLuminescent Bacteria. In contrast to early video experimentations, contemporary Computational Image-Processing simulates and manipulates various visual media in a “well-adjusted” manner for the digital computation and display. With this paper, we reconsider the historical process of image-processing to focus on living entities and microorganisms and attempt to extend the possibility of works being “deliberately maladjusted.”