Chemobrionics

Jitka Čejková / Czech Republic / 2021 / World Premiere / 5 min.

synopsis

Chemobrionics represent a new multidisciplinary field of science dealing with the properties of inorganic substances on the basis of their similarity to the behaviour of living systems. The video shows the beauty of a simple experiment called "chemical gardening", where a metal salt crystal is placed in a glass of water. The viewer follows the multitude of colors and the hypnotic slow growth of tubular structures that resemble plants or fungi. The visual poem combines art with science and makes the viewer contemplate what a wonderful view nature offers of something inanimate that looks alive.

„If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need." (Cicero). Just as the gardens of the ancient Romans were used to contemplate, philosophize, and think about life, so do chemical gardens open the door to philosophical questions such as what life is and how it came to be, or how we can actually differentiate biological systems from their chemical counterparts.

biography

Jitka Čejková (1982) works at the Department of Chemical Engineering under the University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague. She worked at the University of Trento in the Laboratory of Artificial Biology and is currently involved in the European COST Chemobrionics project. Her scientific research focuses on artificial life, chemical robotics, and the biomimetic behaviour of droplets.