Brian Knep : Journal
Pause, Death, Restart
The Harvard medical school frog/worm/yeast work, which I now call merely the ‘Aging’ project, has been on hold while I organized and installed a show at Ronald Feldman Fine Arts. My first show in New York, solo and at a good gallery, it’s the most art-world exposure I’ve had as yet. No matter what may come of it, I’m proud of the work and how it all looks together.
While I was gone the most-developed froglet, the one with no tail, died. (Altough they are at different stages of development, all my frogs are the same age.) Not sure why he died, perhaps the ammonia levels in the tank were too high. I’m sad, of course. And unfortunately he was thrown out before I got back to town. I would have liked to have seen him, photographed him, felt the absence of life. Interestingly, I was more upset and concerned that I wouldn’t have the opportunity to do this than I was feeling sad or guilty. Healthy? Not sure.
So now I’m back in town and, aside from the usual grant and show applications, am trying to keep my slate clean so I can push full force on this Aging work. I must scramble to finish some of it for a show at the Judi Rotenberg Gallery in April. Deadlines are good, but the pressure is taking some of the fun out of the work. I subtitled the show ‘Works in Progress from the Harvard Residency’; the ‘in progress’ part helping me relax a bit, giving me breathing room.
Mentally exhausted from the New York show, scared of failure, and moving slowly, but in pretty good spirits.
Eating and Rubber Gloves
I saw my froglet eat with his hands for the first time today! He sat over the food pellet and used his tiny hands to shove it into his mouth. Then I saw a man wearing large orange rubber gloves run excitedly down the hall. Love this place.
Micro Lending
Christine Field just lent me a nice dissecting microscope. I’m hoping to use it to film the nematode Caenorhabditis Elegans. It doesn’t have a port for a camera, but I should be able to buy a connector that allows me to screw a camera directly onto one of the eyepieces.
Adolescence Official?
Came back last weekend to find that the largest tadpole’s legs had passed his tail in length! A transitional moment in his froghood. Still really small: about the size of a large vitamin pill.
I mucked with the contrast of this picture to highlight the bones.
Container Discontent
Still having trouble making a good container to hold the tadpoles. The box I made out of the WireForm (r) is lumpy, with too many places for the fish to hide out of the camera lens, and I’m worried the wire ends will hurt the animals. I think it would be possible to use WireForm successfully, but it’s inelegance bothers me.
I’m now looking at taking a bowl or bottle, cutting out the bottom and replacing it with the mesh.
Caged frog below, plus a few of the many attempts at a DIY frog container.
Mess Assembling
What a mess the lab space has become. I’m experimenting with different setups for the best long-term picture taking. The smaller the space I can confine the tadpoles in the larger they’ll show up in the pictures, but of course the space has to be big enough for them to swim, eat, and crap. Also, standard aquarium equipment (filter, heater, etc) is designed for larger water volumes than I’m using.
The solution I’m trying is to create a porous, confined area in a larger aquarium. The first attempt, a ’specimen container’ with holes drilled along the sides, hangs in the tank and works well but tadpole crap accumulates on the bottom and doesn’t make it to the filter. Also, bubbles from the filter get stuck under the container, making it difficult to get a clean shot. Now I’m building a mesh container that’ll also hang in the tank. Hopefully the waste will fall through the holes and I’ll be able to remove the wire-grid using background-subtraction techniques.
PS, Bug is fine.
My Three Frogs
Picked up three frogs (tadpoles) from Brian F today, decided to name them June, Bug, and Untitled. Suggestions for changes to that last are welcome and encouraged. I don’t actually know their genders, but will use name appropriate pronouns until I know better.
The frogs need special, dechlorinated water, so I also picked up a jug of Frog Water.
This is going to be a difficult project. The tadpoles’ tails move *very* quickly and they like to hang around the edges of the tank where it’s difficult to get a clean shot. Lighting and resolution are also problems.
I’m worried Bug isn’t doing too well; he keeps flipping onto his side and not moving.
Actin Age
Bill Brieher and Hao Yuan Kueh, who are working with Actin filaments, told me they see signs of aging in these microscopic proteins. They found that the longer the filaments are around, the longer it takes for them to shrink. The older filaments somehow take longer to disassemble. Part of what’s curious here is Bill and Kueh’s use of the word ‘aging’ simply to refer to a time-related effect. When I write these words, am I aging the journal? When I drop a ball, am I, the ball, or the universe aging? I suppose all are true.
Rediscovering Frogs
The project has so many unknowns—live animals, photography, software—that I’ve been feeling overwhelmed and am having trouble starting the hard work. Pushing myself forward, I spent some time with Brian F, the frog master (my term, not his).
Brian’s a quiet and sweet guy who happens to love reptiles. His sits in a room surrounded by thousands of frogs in all stages of development and has a collection of reptiles at his home. We talked about aquariums, filtration, heating, feeding, life cycles, and more. Very productive, but most important was seeing the frogs again and rediscovering my fascination with them and, through that, my passion for this project.
Frog eggs, frogs make eggs,
Lone frog, and frog legs!
Undead, Slowly Dying
Made the potentialy ruinous mistake of installing World of Warcraft yesterday. Chose to play an ‘Undead’ character as a tribute to my current work, and then played for an embarassing number of hours. I wasn’t eating or going to the bathroom and my shoulders were aching. I was completely out of touch. Unmindful. Dying.