The Black Lace projects explore the fault lines between nature and culture. Black Lace involved a destructive micro-visual analysis of a sample of antique silk Chantilly lace. Hundreds of hugely magnified studies were produced using a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) in collaboration with scientific imaging specialists from the University of Southampton’s Biomedical Imaging Unit. These were digitally recomposed to create a continuous, slow panning shot of lace montages in virtual 3D screen space. The resulting scrolling lace landscape is set against a multilayered, stochastic sound composition of larval silk moths devouring the mulberry leaves that fuel the production of the silk protein fibres. SEM was used to visually evidence the underlying mathematics and structural torsions of Chantilly lace in close conjunction with the theoretically unfathomable complexity of the silk fibres. The human Chantilly-net-maker mimics polygonal networks found in nature, but in the film, immensely magnified details reveal the lace's intrinsic 'otherness' and silkworm origins. The non-optical electron materialization of the Chantilly net in the installation alludes to processes of biophysical metamorphosis and other lurking frontier narratives drawn from the contemporary biosciences and synthetic biology. The silkworm has biosocial significance and vast economies and whole communities depend on the molecular proteins of its cast-off capillary structure.

Black Lace – Dark Space presents the enduring material residue of the Black Lace project: a fragment of lace that has been through the SEM system is displayed like a gold scientific relic. Its original palladium coating for the process has been replaced by a thin dusting of ionized gold particles – also a viable medium for SEM imaging. The work aims to engage audiences with the creative, transformative methods of art and science, demonstrating how matter is transformed from one substance to another and inviting public engagement with the physics of non-optical bio-imaging and synthetic biology.