Counter-Protocol of Unstable Life
Step inside our Clean Lab to decode the secret rituals usually hidden away in research facilities, and for one night, take up the lab coat and become the scientist yourself.
Rooted in the artist’s Mexican heritage, this project reveals the deep colonial histories embedded in our everyday crops while breeding a speculative hybrid of tomato, vanilla, and corn. Through an interactive screen, you’re invited to decolonize botany by engineering your very own new plant species.
Presented as a sculptural altar, Counter-Protocol of Unstable Life treats genetic engineering not as a cold lab process, but as a ritual act of transformation. The altar honors the laboratory as a space where nature is reshaped and new forms of life are imagined, bringing together three core pillars of understanding: Scientific, Artistic, and Traditional Knowledge.
In this interactive installation experimental proteins are exposed to real-time feedback from both plants (such as tomato, maize, vanilla, or beans) and humans. Rather than forcing a fixed result, the work allows these living, physical responses to guide the outcome, turning the protein into an open conversation between science and nature.
Ultimately, the piece challenges the idea that humans alone control biological design. By creating a continuous dialogue between technology, human choices, and living plants, it asks a fundamental question: who—or what—gets a say in designing the future of life?
Edible Notions 2024 by Laura Rodriguez -
Counter-Protocol of Unstable Life by Laura Rodriguez -
Laura Elidedt Rodriguez
Her work examines rituals, bodies, and mythical monsters to reimagine coexistence across species and cultures. Based in the Netherlands, she investigates what it means to be human in an increasingly technologized world-positioning non-human intelligence, living materials, and ancient traditions as essential frameworks for our shared future. Enlarge
Information
Exhibition19:00 - 02:00, 7 November 2026 Mediamatic, Clean Lab
Part of GMO: How far are you willing to mutate? during Museumnacht Amsterdam 2026.
Produced in partnership with Bioart Society, who have commissioned and supported the work of HSURAE and Laura Elidedt Rodriguez within the framework of the Horizon Europe project deCYPher (2023–2027).
Questions? program@mediamatic.nl
