Brooklyn-based illustrator and artist Craig Ward seems to have an almost unhealthy (pun very much intended) obsession with the microorganisms growing in New York's Subway. He's so interested in the bacteria, it's become the inspiration for his science-meets-art project, the Subvisual Subway Series.
While reading about a bacteria-focused personal project from microbiologist Tasha Sturm while on the train in New York, Ward found himself remembering the old urban myth, "When you hold onto the handrail it’s like you’re shaking hands with a hundred people at the same time."
Instead of being instantly repulsed at the thought of fondling the bacteria of several people, he found himself fascinated at the idea of each train car hosting its own unique family of bacteria—shaped by the small collection of passengers riding the same train route every day.
In order to collect the necessary bacteria, Ward cut a series of sterilized sponges into a typeface that mirrored the name of each train line, then swabbed the surfaces on a variety of trains—cultivating his findings in a petri dish. Starting with L Train, Ward found that his science project was a success almost overnight, with a colorful array of shapes and geometric patterns cropping up from the bacteria in the petri dishes.
But it wasn't just pretty colored dots that came up after cultivation. Ward—with help from a bacteriologist in Colorado and New York magazine—identified a surprising amount of scary infectants, including E. coli, Salmonella, and Staphylococcus.
Ward notes that while he did cover many different train lines, the L train was his favorite. The broad arrangement of colors and shapes seemingly reflect the line's diverse ridership. He considers the entire project an homage to the blended populations and backgrounds that make NYC...well, NYC.
"You look at the subway and it’s all just different shapes and sizes and colors of people and you look at it at a microscopic level and it’s all just different shapes and sizes and colors of bacterial colonies," Ward tells Bernstein & Andriulli. "It’s a nice kind of portrait of the city on a very small scale."
See some Ward's findings below. If you're interested in owning a piece of this bacterial art project, head over to Ward's website, Words Are Pictures.
