Ani Liu – Kisses from the future

The bacteria that live on your body outnumber your own cells.  While we have 23,000 genes, our microbiome can contain up to 2 million unique bacterial genes.  There is a lot of emerging research on the role of all the microorganisms cohabit our body and personal traits, such as mood, behavior and health.  These findings unseat our relationship with notions of identity and genetic determinism; do I exhibit certain traits because of genes I inherited, because of the environment I was raised in, or because of the biome I have acquired through a lifetime of kissing and touching?
Kisses from the Future consists of a series of self portraits exploring a decentralized identity composed of the multi-species constellation that is a microbiome. This project examines the impact of microorganisms living in the body that impact mood and behavior- elements that we typically associate with a sense of “self”, but is co-made with other species.