Shijia H








Emerging Terrains
2024 - ongoing

MicrographEmerging Terrains is an ongoing project that explores microscopic images of dyed bacteria collected during laboratory research. Beginning with a series of microscopy photographs, the work reveals dense, abstract biological landscapes that exist beyond human perception. These are terrains that surround us at every moment, in our bodies, our homes, our cities, yet remain invisible to the naked eye and largely unattended to in everyday life.

Bacteria are constantly put to use. They are cultured, stained, and manipulated in laboratories, industries, and everyday technologies, valued almost entirely for what they can do for us. Yet within this relationship of use, little genuine attention is given to the organisms themselves, to their forms, behaviours, and the essential roles they play as members of the ecosystems we depend on. Emerging Terrains turns the lens back onto these overlooked lifeforms. By magnifying and re-presenting dyed bacterial colonies as vivid, almost topographical landscapes, the work asks viewers to pause and really look, not at what microorganisms can do for us, but at what they are. What emerges is not just a scientific image, but a new terrain, one that invites a shift from instrumental use toward a quiet, sustained attentiveness to the microbial world we inhabit and depend on together.











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