Yeast Metaphors Beyond Machines

Yeasts, or microbial fungi, are often described in contemporary biological engineering via machine-related metaphors. Although widely accepted, the language of machinery and computation when referring to these microbes is problematic from the perspectives of science communication analysis and multispecies research. This is because, among other effects, such figures of speech used in relation to living organisms systematically disregard some of the characteristics of living beings, thereby limiting the ways in which they are studied. In the context of developing technological solutions to societal and ecological problems, treating living beings as machines may create over-reliance on biotechnological fixes and potentially lead to detrimental byproducts of these biotechnologies. In contrast to the dominance of mechanistic language in yeast research, drawing on the work on metaphors in science and art and their circularity, this paper discusses yeast metaphors and meanings created and conveyed by artworks produced by the Finnish artist Johanna Rotko. Examining Rotko’s yeast images or ‘yeastograms’ that playfully engage with notions of control and randomness, purity and interspecies multiplicity, this article argues that Rotko’s art challenges the perception of yeasts as predictable “molecular machineries” and opens diverse avenues for conceptualising yeasts.
© Timurgalieva. Published by BCS Learning and Development Ltd. Proceedings of POM 2024, Aachen, Germany