Microbial Sensing: Constructing Perception through Technological Layers

Abstract The author introduces the concept of looking without seeing to describe the layered use of technology required to experience microorganisms during the making of The Stars Beneath Our Feet: an audiovisual installation for Lumiere Durham, a four-day international light festival produced by Artichoke in the U.K. First, the author describes the experience of technological layering when attempting to perceive microorganisms in the visual field and then the methodology adopted to determine how the same microorganisms might be perceived in the auditory field. The conclusion describes the author's sense of being with the organism as a form of constructed perception in the context of “looking for” and “listening for” microorganisms through an expanded technological frame.