Viruses 'back on the grid' in NIOO garden

If you're lucky enough to go out the back entrance of the NIOO building, you'll have noticed the big metal structure opposite the Food Forest. It's by artist Art van Triest and just like with our own research, there's more to it than meets the eye. Mark Zwart (Microbial Ecology) tells the story.

Although viruses can cause disease, ecologists see them as integral and often beneficial components of ecosystems.

For example, these minuscule entities can promote microbial diversity, shape food webs and nutrient cycles, and help their hosts respond to stressful environmental changes.

PR problem

To protect and manage ecosystems successfully, we need to consider viruses and their impact. However, viruses, like many other potential pathogens, have a serious PR problem: the general public tends to associate them with death and destruction.

One important mission for viral ecology – and microbial ecology in general – is therefore to share a more holistic perspective on viruses with society.

Grid Art

Art van Triest uses grids made of many different materials to explore the theme of control (https://www.artvantriest.nl/): how people reduce complex realities to overly simplistic linear representations, often as a coping mechanism. Much of his work features alterations of grids – or even their destruction! – as a metaphor for challenging our own systems and thinking.

Art led a workshop on art and science for the Virus Ecology and Evolution group. When we shared our group vision that microorganisms and viruses can be beneficial and have an important role to play in restoration of ecosystems, this triggered him to produce a sculpture exploring these ideas.

Which is which?

The sculpture Art has produced now stands in the NIOO garden, on the north-east side of Building One. It uses grids to depict ecosystems in three states: degraded, partially restored and resilient.

What do you think: which is which? A universal symbol for viruses is the icosahedron: viral capsids often have this geometric form, consisting of 20 sides each with a triangular form. As you walk along these grids, what shapes do you see as the lines intertwine?