Blue Blood
Installation
2022
Glass, mineral oil, water, pumps, vinyl tubing, aluminum, sound, digital display
Blue Blood is an immersive installation examining the extraction of horseshoe crab blood for biomedical testing. Two glass vessels alternate between motion and stillness every eight minutes—the approximate duration of a single blood extraction—while a sound composition, clinical instructions, and circulating blue liquid transform a hidden industrial process into a physical experience. Developed through conversations with wildlife biologists, scientific literature, and biomedical protocols, the installation considers the distance between ecological consequence and institutional routine.
Field Notes
I wanted to understand how something so ancient could become invisible.
The procedure lasted eight minutes.
The consequences lasted much longer.
Reading became part of making.
I stopped thinking about the animal.
I started thinking about the system around it.
The installation measures extraction.
Not with numbers.
With time.
July, 2022
Observed
The pumps alternated every eight minutes throughout the exhibition.
Visitors often stayed longer than they expected.
The sound was usually noticed before the liquid.
People circled the walls before discovering where the tubing began.
The installation was quieter than the research behind it.
Some systems become invisible because they work exactly as designed.
