Symposium
The online symposium about Anna Dumitriu’s project “Greening the Lab: Decarbonising Biomedical Science” took place on 26th March 2025 1-3pm GMT (2-4 CET) as part of the EU supported VOICE Project.
About
“Greening the Lab: Decarbonising Biomedical Science” (2024-25) led by artist Anna Dumitriu brings together communities of scientists, medics, healthcare workers, patients and the public to explore how biomedicine can be more sustainable through a series of workshops.
“Greening the Lab: Decarbonising Biomedical Science” is an artistic intervention in the framework of the EU VOICE project, which responds to an urgent need from the biomedical research community to create novel solutions and increase stakeholder support via patient and public engagement communities to drive forward the decarbonisation of biomedical science and healthcare and raise awareness of sustainability in this field which is accounts for almost 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Anna Dumitriu is collaborating with and communities of biomedical scientists and medics in the field of microbiology and infectious diseases: the Healthcare Associated Infection Team at the University of Leeds, Modernising Medical Microbiology at the University of Oxford, and Brighton and Sussex Medical School/University Hospitals Sussex.
Microbiology, infectious diseases, and in particular hospital associated infectious diseases are particularly challenging to decarbonise, as cross-contamination and the risk of infection means that many single use plastic items are used, for example Petri dishes and pipette tips, but also some metal devices such as those used in operating theatres are also treated as single use. Our project asks how these items can be sustainably consumed and produced, as well as ways they can be recycled.
Anna Dumitriu is leading a series of participatory art workshops in Leeds, Oxford and Brighton to explore issues involved in a broad way, consider the materiality of the waste materials , and work together in hands on ways to co-create solutions. Examples of questions being explored in the project are: can agar that has been used to grow bacteria in the lab be used in the production of bioplastics? Can the wool used to project glassware be used to make felted objects or clothes? Can a metal laryngoscope blade be made sterile using alternative methods?
Even a small successful innovation in this field can have a massive impact if rolled out to the international community via the high-profile scientific communities involved in this project. Research, outcomes and ideas from the workshops will be further developed to create a high impact long lasting legacy and artwork that can tour to events and exhibitions, from science festivals to art museums. Research will be written up and shared widely through mine and my community’s extensive networks.
Artworks
Agar Bioplastic
“Greening the Lab: Decarbonising Biomedical Science” worked with used agar which has been sterilised by autoclaving to make it safe, and using that to make bioplastic material. The seaweed forms cast from agar bioplastic by the artist reference the fact that agar is made from seaweed which when growing in the sea captures large amounts of carbon. Healthcare on the other hand is one of the larger producers of carbon dioxide. There are 240000 tons of medical waste produced each year with 96% of it coming from hospital settings. There are shortages of agar at the moment. It can be made safe after use via sterilisation and can be used to make agar-based bioplastic. Why do we feel a sense of disgust even if it is safe? The work explores and confronts our sensory and aesthetic biases.
The project is featured in the prestigious Congress of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases and will be physically exhibited in the ESCMID Global 2025 Art Gallery in Vienna (Austria) and in their catalogue.
Visibly Soiled
The term ‘visibly soiled’ is used to describe medical waste when it’s possible to visually observe dirt or mess with the naked eye. This is sometimes used to decide on the waste stream used for an item, such as a hospital apron (recyclable or for incineration). But this artwork critically reflects on the notion of being visibly soiled, as from a bacteriological perspective something can look clean but be contaminated with bacteria that are invisible to the naked eye and only visible under a microscope. In research into whether metal laryngoscope blades can be made sterile, scientists are working with synthetic human body fluids, in particular blood and sputum, which they will mix with bacteria.
The researchers will ‘visibly soil’ objects and will then evaluate sterilisation methods. Anna Dumitriu is in the process of shadowing this developing work with Opeyemi Makanjuola and Dr James Price at Brighton and Sussex Medical School. Initial artistic experiments have involved working with albumin and defibrinated sheep blood (with the clotting agents removed) on white marble, cotton calico and silk.
Some of the calico has previously been grown with Staphyloccocus aureus bacteria and then sterilised. The artist has also worked onto the marble with pearls which symbolise by a reaction to trapped dirt, a form of visible but beautiful soiling. Gold leaf references the cost of medical waste to the environment.
About the VOICE Project
“Greening the Lab: Decarbonising Biomedical Science” receives funding from a Horizon Europe project called VOICE. The EU VOICE project uses a new approach where artists take the lead in Art-Technology-Society Interactions (ATSIs), bringing communities together to solve environmental problems co-creatively. The first phase of the VOICE project is the pilot phase, where this approach is tested. Anna Dumitriu is one of six artists funded as part of the pilot phase for her project “Greening the Lab: Decarbonising Biomedical Science”. Through artist-led interventions (ATSIs), VOICE encourages citizen engagement to tackle local and regional environmental challenges effectively. To learn more about the VOICE community, visit the project website or social media channels (LinkedIn, Instagram).