My friend Allison Kudla is an artist that creates art at the intersection of robotics and biology. She just came out with a new piece involving lasercut leaves that continue to grow. It’s beautiful and so I asked her some questions to learn more!
>> How did you come up with this idea of laser-cutting leaves and getting them to grow?
I had previously done work with extruding liquid mediums of plant cells in a CNC setup for DesCours 2007. I was also exposed to the laser cutting process by my friend, Ryan Wolfe, who was using it for his piece, Branching Systems At one point we tested laser cutting dried leaves for his piece. At the same time I was doing tissue culture experiments “cutting” and “punching” leaf discs, and through various conversations this idea emerged. At the point I had decided this would be the next thing I try, I had a meeting with Douglas Repetto. He happened to have a laser cutter and a plant in his office! This is where I made the first cut of a living plant.
>> Tell me a bit about the laser cutting process. What was it like to cut live leaves?
It was exciting. I had been imagining intricate symmetrical patterns in plant matter for a while and to immediately see this happen was very satisfying. I was surprised at how little the cut edge was burned, and the tissue cut fairly cleanly. The main burden involved the veins, which I will probably reconsider in more depth in my next take on the project. Its not an entirely flat surface because of them, and they need to be worked into the design more elegantly, or perhaps removed all together.
Then there was the challenging process of cutting the leaves at the School of Art and then walking 20 minutes (sometimes in the rain, (you know Seattle!)) across UW’s campus to get to the Biology Lab. I kept the leaves in petri dishes with a little water. Which segues into your next question.
>> How do you get the leaves to stay alive after laser cutting them?
Its an experiment! I don’t actually know if they will. It took several hours to place all of the tissue on the agar. During that time the leaves may have been deteriorating and contamination may have occurred (I was sterilizing my tools with fervor!). The good news, the edge where the laser was cutting lost its chloroplasts immediately. You could visibly see a perfect line where the green pigment just dropped off. But the rest of the leaf stayed green and appears to be respirating. Edges are also damaged when the leaves are cut with a blade. In the end, however, if the laser cutter does pose a problem to the life of the tissue, I will cut a pattern in the laser cutter to make a punch and just return to a less direct manipulation of the tool. It is not the laser cutting of the leaves that is the idea, but rather the form and pattern the leaves are in and the growth that they take on from that point. So for now, we shall wait and see, and in the future I may end up modifying my process.
>> What happens at the end of installation, are you going to dry the leaves?
When the agar medium “runs out” and dries up, so will the leaves. And yes, I will let them dry naturally. In the future I may try to figure out how to transplant or replenish the leaves somehow. Hopefully more on that in the future!
Super big thanks to Allison for indulging my questions. Check out this video of her work growing! If you’re intruiged, go see more of her work at her site!
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