From artist statement: ”Synthetic biology can give detailed insight into our metabolic processes and introduce new interactions with our body. This work proposes these interactions as a new form of cooking, to tailor an emotional experience for a specific person at a specific time.

Cook Me – Black Bile proposes a recipe for controlling the feeling of melancholy. Using synthetic biology, bespoke yeasts are designed that measure chemicals in the blood and alter levels of serotonin accordingly, making one feel less or more melancholic. To do so, the dish is cooked from a leech that has first fed itself on the body. An instrument specially designed for this recipe allows the leech to feed on the forearm and is then used to cook a blood mousse from the parasite’s body. The blood mousse is accompanied by oyster mushrooms, a redcurrant sauce and blood sorrel.”