Biotechnology from the Blue Flower

Chicory moves from Romantic symbol to gene-edited specimen through scans, sculpture, and laboratory material in this installation and AR work.

Biotechnology from the Blue Flower showing a chicory plant form against a background of genomic text.

Alex May developed Biotechnology from the Blue Flower with Anna Dumitriu as a bio-digital installation that takes the chicory plant as both material subject and cultural symbol. Drawing on research in the EU CHIC labs, the work brings together high-resolution photogrammetry, 3D printing, relics of CRISPR-modified protoplasts and leaves, genomic projection, and a related augmented reality app. It traces chicory from German Romanticism’s Blue Flower to current debates around gene editing, asking how ideas of nature are reshaped when plants become sites of technological intervention.

What matters here is not simply the presence of advanced tools, but the way each mode of recording changes the plant’s status. Chicory moves between specimen, symbol, scan, sculpture, and public apparition without settling into one truth. That movement places the work squarely inside May’s wider concerns with preservation, reconstruction, and the unstable boundary between natural history and technological image-making.

Additional notes

  • Developed with Anna Dumitriu through the ASN-AIR residency programme in the CHIC science labs between 2018 and 2022, with the commission awarded through Art Science Node.
  • The artists worked directly with researchers at the CHIC consortium, including Wageningen University and KeyGene, learning and applying photogrammetry and CRISPR-related laboratory processes as part of the work’s development.
  • The final installation combines a 3D printed chicory sculpture, projected genome imagery, digital video, and laboratory plant material, while the Blue Flower AR app extends the project into public space.
  • The work has been shown in contexts including Wunderkammer BioArt at Kunsthaus Wiesbaden in 2022, Gene Cultures at MIT Museum from 2022 to 2025, Food Fight! at Michigan State University Museum in 2024, and Of the Earth at Diriyah Art Futures in 2026.

Talks, exhibitions, and updates connected to this work.

  • Gene Cultures at MIT Museum

    Biotechnology from the Blue Flower was presented at MIT Museum in Gene Cultures, an exhibition exploring genetic technologies, public debate, and the future of biotechnology.

  • Wunderkammer BioArt at Kunsthaus Wiesbaden

    Fermenting Futures and Biotechnology from the Blue Flower were presented at Kunsthaus Wiesbaden in an exhibition exploring bioart through fermentation, genetics, and material transformation.

  • Biotechnology From the Blue Flower: The Unnatural, That Too is Natural

    Alex May joined an Art Science Node Berlin panel on biotechnology, CRISPR, and changing ideas of what counts as natural, centred on the CHIC project and Biotechnology from the Blue Flower.

  • Capture the Future(s): OUR BIO-TECH PLANET

    Alex May presented work in Art Science Node's virtual Plant Biology Europe Congress exhibition, showing both CHIC residency material with Anna Dumitriu and pieces from Algorithmic Photography.

Selected images

A chicory plant growing in a greenhouse during the research process for Biotechnology from the Blue Flower.
Chicory plant in the greenhouse during the residency research process.
Wireframe and textured scan detail of a chicory root.
3D scan detail developed from the plant research.
Blue Flower AR placing virtual chicory plants across a stone heritage site.
Blue Flower AR extends the work into public space.
Blue Flower AR placing virtual chicory plants into a garden landscape.
The augmented reality version allows the work to circulate beyond the gallery.