$IGNAL$ 022: GHOSTS, MICROBES AND GLUE.
A new opera in New York, a book that changes in soil, and an adhesive designed to hold wet tissue together. This week’s most arresting ideas are doing something physical.
GHOSTS TAKE THE STAGE
Missy Mazzoli’s Lincoln in the Bardo premiered at the Metropolitan Opera on October 19. Adapted from George Saunders’s novel, it puts a world of grieving spirits onstage through music, puppetry, projections and special effects. Mazzoli is the first woman composer to have a world premiere at the Met.
The production shows what an adaptation can gain when it commits to the possibilities of its new medium.
THE BOOK GOES INTO THE SOIL
Shijia Huang’s Written in Decay, on view at Dutch Design Week, is made with bacteria-derived bioplastic. Its pages are exposed to soils collected around London. Microorganisms, moisture and time leave marks on them.
The book records conditions it encounters after it is made. That opens up a different way to think about an edition: its surface need not stay fixed.
SURGERY GETS A NEW ADHESIVE
MIT spinout SanaHeal has developed a material that rapidly adheres to wet, uneven tissue. It has regulatory approval for stopping trauma bleeding, while further surgical applications are expected to enter human trials next year.
Its founders were inspired by natural adhesives, including those of barnacles and spiders. The practical challenge is exacting: make a seal where ordinary tape would fail.
THE SIGNAL
Experimentation is moving into familiar territory: opera, books, surgical repair. If you want to find the next idea, start with the format everyone assumes is fixed.
SEND US THE PROBLEM
ROT$ builds creative experiences around what people actually do, notice and remember. Tell us what you are trying to make possible: rots@rotsworldwide.com
RELATED $IGNAL$