Today we’d like to introduce you to Eileen Ryan

Hi eileen, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?

I started doing experiments really young. I’d gather pond scum and put it in circles around ferns with the intention that it would attract little orange and black salamanders. If I found three different types of moss on one rock, that was a fairy door and salamanders were close. I would gather rollie pollies and put them under rocks where no salamanders were in hopes it would attract them because they would want to hang out together. Then I grew up, and the backyard got smaller, but the questions and curiosities I had never stopped.

In school I found myself drawn to science, and my favorite classes were the lab portion of the curriculum. I loved growing bacteria, learning about fungi, and seeing how everything connected in the body. The first time I looked through a microscope was like having a spiritual awakening. I became addicted to discovery. Soon I wanted to explore outside the studio microscope and began focusing my energy on proposals so that I may be able to travel and explore the worlds I read about and watched in movies. I began collecting and archiving things I found like rocks and soil in order to create mineral fingerprints of each place I went to. Following my heart led me to meeting other like minded people all over the world. It seems like when I’m doing what feeds my soul, there almost always is someone there that shares that same intensity.

I am currently focused on conducting experiments at my small home porch lab, writing stories for my publication “CODEX” , and gardening.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?

No! But not much exciting in life is. I’ve struggled with mental health, financial health and career set backs. But life keeps going, and you just hop back on, learn from the past and hope for the best. I had a professor once say something like, “if you want to be an artist, you better get good at failing.” I think they meant taking risks in a painting, but I’ve often thought of that in a broader sense. Fear of failing comes easy, the good at failing part takes a lot of practice and humility, and all I can do is try, and learn from those moments and trust the process.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?

My work pulls from the sciences as much as it does the arts. I am interested in making connections and recognizing patterns, which helps foster my belief that everything is connected in the universe and beyond. This method of exploration gives me a solid visual language to begin conversations about spirituality, compassion and mysticism which generates an endless supply of questions and concepts to speculate and investigate.

I am currently working on a couple projects. One is an investigation into beetle galleries (the marks beetles make in trees). Ever since I was little, I would walk through the woods, gathering sticks that beetles carved and whisper back to the writings that I believed aliens or elves wrote to me. As I grew older, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the woods had something to say. In “CODEX” I have speculatively translated these markings using both an AI language translating software and pareidolia to create a series of myths, legends and folklore. My hypothesis was that I would uncover patterns that would lead me closer to a potential awareness of inter-species communication. What I have begun uncovering through a variety of translation strategies, is an outside critique of humanity’s role on Earth and the destructive similarities between beetle and man. The first collection of stories have been published by Unformed Informed Publishing. I am currently working on stories that were collected near my home in New Hampshire.

The second project I am really excited about is “Spiritual Microbiomes”. The spiritual microbiome and holobiont is a term I use to describe the hypothetical microbes that coexist within a group of people practicing the same faith, or the microbial signature of the ‘spirit’ itself. This is an ongoing project about visualizing faith and the microbial kingdoms that potentially coexist on the spiritual surface. The microbiome is the community of microorganisms (fungi, algae, bacteria, and viruses) that exists in a particular environment. In humans, the term is often used to describe the microbes that live in or on a particular part of the body, such as the skin. A holobiont is a collection of closely associated species that have complex interactions, such as a plant species and the members of its microbiome.

The first project in the Spiritual Microbiome series was “Observation and Ritual”. I began this project in Japan as a way to capture the microbial signature of Kami (Kami (Japanese: 神, [kaꜜmi]) the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or “holy powers”, that are venerated in the Shinto religion.) entering and exiting the Kami Sama dwellings within the Shintō shrines of Onishi in 2016. The Petri dishes were inoculated with air from inside the Shinto shrines which spirits are believed to inhabit. I used a variety of samples and found that the colonies reflected dark and light bacterial growth. The spirits in the Shinto religion are said to be good and bad like rain during a drought versus a typhoon, and humans contain these spirits within themselves. This is the same with bacteria. We have good bacteria in our bodies but when it moves or transforms, the bacteria can cause a lot of problems. It is important to maintain a balance of light and dark so one doesn’t take over the other. Although imbalance is inevitable at some point, rituals can help maintain a healthy relationship with balance.

The current project “Rose Window” A project where I inoculated a collection of Petri dishes containing a medium of sheep’s blood agar with holy water from the Vatican and cured them in resin in order to fashion it into a large-scale rose window. The idea is to visualize the microbial communities captured in the water of those practicing the same faith. Do microbes change when they enter the holy water? Do practitioners share parts of their microbial signature with one another? Is there a sacred microbiome?

Blood, sheep, shepherding, and holy water are all important symbols in Catholicism. Through the observation of what grows in the holy water the practitioners use to cleanse and bless themselves upon entering holy sites, I can speculate that the microbiome from their skin enters the pool creating a unique bath of sinners and prayers; instead of the individual, the unique signature of the flock.

Research has been conducted to demonstrate the correlation between being close to one another, and sharing similar bacteria. “The researchers found that people who lived together — no matter their relationship — tended to have the same microbe strains in their mouths, and the longer they lived together, the more they shared. ” (Ewen Callaway, Nature.com) The “Rose Window” would NOT be a tool to prove the legitimacy of faith, but a way to look further into the concept that we are all connected through seen, and unseen systems. Is it the signature of a flock? Could a shared microbiome be initiated by the act of blessing oneself? Are there sacred microbes?

Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?

I am always interested in working with scientists and other creatives. Scientists bring a solid foundation to the work, I love the scientists’ curiosity, and their conversations are often theoretical. Together the ideas become even more inventive. I also thrive being around other creatives such as musicians, book and web designers, builders, film makers, chefs and animators etc. Artists and creatives are able to give a lot of insight into how different ideas could be represented and interacted with by the viewer.

And of course… any institution or persons with an open mind, an appreciation for the arts and sciences and money never hurts! Attn: billionaires venmo @enora201.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.eileenryan.com
• Instagram: @sci_witch

Image Credits
María Contreras
Unformed Informed Publishing
Art Collart
Jenna Sarno
Cultivamos Cultura
Shiro Oni Studios