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We’ll have reduced opening hours from Thursday 18 until Saturday 20 August, due to strike action affecting UK transport networks. The galleries, Reading Room and café will close at 17:00 on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The library will close at 17:00 on Thursday and Friday, and at 16:00 as usual on Saturday. Please check our opening times for more information.

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"1000 Handshakes" is a performance piece during which the artist shakes hands with as many people as possible, gradually changing the invisible microbial community in the palm of his hand. Periodically, assistants take a swab from the skin, and the samples are analyzed in the lab to reveal how our contact with others shapes the microbes between us. This ongoing project has been performed in different cities around the world (including Copenhagen, Montreal, San Francisco, Perth, Berlin and Baltimore) as a way to map our collective microbiome using scientific data.



Production of the 'microbiome selfies' involved many different steps. Following the collection of the microbiome samples, bacterial DNA was extracted, amplified and sequenced to create the bioinformatic data shown in this series. The nodes of the networks represent bacterial DNA sequences, and two nodes are connected by an edge (line) when the bacterial DNA sequences have more than 95% similarity. The different colours correspond to distinct samples collected at every 50th handshake, from 0 to 1001. 



This image corresponds to the 12th image in this 21-part series, showing the extensive microbiome resulting from 550 handshakes.

Bacterial microbiome mapping, bioartistic experiment

<p>Leaflet advertising performance events at Wellcome Collection (183 Euston Road, London) in February 2009 under the banner of: Inexplicable acts. These included  a contortionist (Delia Du Sol), jugglers (Feeding the Fish), sword swallower (Dan Meyer) and a headless woman.</p>

Wellcome Collection ephemera. Box 1.

1 folded sheet (4 pages) : color illustrations, map ; 21 cm

Inexplicable acts : free events / Wellcome Collection.

This image shows choreographer, Mark Smith, with contemporary (wearing) and historical (holding) hearing aids.



The image was taken as part of a project involving disabled and deaf artists working with academics and medical history experts to explore and engage with medical collections in new ways. 



In this image, Mark Smith explores and interacts with an object from the Thackray Medical Museum's collection of hearing aids, objects with which he has strong personal and emotional connections.

Mark Smith with historical and contemporary hearing aids

"1000 Handshakes" is a performance piece during which the artist shakes hands with as many people as possible, gradually changing the invisible microbial community in the palm of his hand. Periodically, assistants take a swab from the skin, and the samples are analyzed in the lab to reveal how our contact with others shapes the microbes between us. This ongoing project has been performed in different cities around the world (including Copenhagen, Montreal, San Francisco, Perth, Berlin and Baltimore) as a way to map our collective microbiome using scientific data.



Production of the 'microbiome selfies' involved many different steps. Following the collection of the microbiome samples, bacterial DNA was extracted, amplified and sequenced to create the bioinformatic data shown in this series. The nodes of the networks represent bacterial DNA sequences, and two nodes are connected by an edge (line) when the bacterial DNA sequences have more than 95% similarity. The different colours correspond to distinct samples collected at every 50th handshake, from 0 to 1001. 



This image corresponds to the 10th image in this 21-part series, showing the extensive microbiome resulting from 450 handshakes.

"1000 Handshakes" is a performance piece during which the artist shakes hands with as many people as possible, gradually changing the invisible microbial community in the palm of his hand. Periodically, assistants take a swab from the skin, and the samples are analyzed in the lab to reveal how our contact with others shapes the microbes between us. This ongoing project has been performed in different cities around the world (including Copenhagen, Montreal, San Francisco, Perth, Berlin and Baltimore) as a way to map our collective microbiome using scientific data.



Production of the 'microbiome selfies' involved many different steps. Following the collection of the microbiome samples, bacterial DNA was extracted, amplified and sequenced to create the bioinformatic data shown in this series. The nodes of the networks represent bacterial DNA sequences, and two nodes are connected by an edge (line) when the bacterial DNA sequences have more than 95% similarity. The different colours correspond to distinct samples collected at every 50th handshake, from 0 to 1001. 



This image corresponds to the 2nd image in this 21-part series, showing the extensive microbiome resulting from 50 handshakes.

"1000 Handshakes" is a performance piece during which the artist shakes hands with as many people as possible, gradually changing the invisible microbial community in the palm of his hand. Periodically, assistants take a swab from the skin, and the samples are analyzed in the lab to reveal how our contact with others shapes the microbes between us. This ongoing project has been performed in different cities around the world (including Copenhagen, Montreal, San Francisco, Perth, Berlin and Baltimore) as a way to map our collective microbiome using scientific data.



Production of the 'microbiome selfies' involved many different steps. Following the collection of the microbiome samples, bacterial DNA was extracted, amplified and sequenced to create the bioinformatic data shown in this series. The nodes of the networks represent bacterial DNA sequences, and two nodes are connected by an edge (line) when the bacterial DNA sequences have more than 95% similarity. The different colours correspond to distinct samples collected at every 50th handshake, from 0 to 1001. 



This image corresponds to the 9th image in this 21-part series, showing the extensive microbiome resulting from 400 handshakes.

<p>"For most of us, overwork is the new normal and rest is an afterthought. In our busy lives, rest is defined as the absence of work: late-night TV binges, hours spent trawling the internet, something to do once we've finished everything else on our to-do lists. But dismissing rest stifles our ability to think creatively and truly recharge. In Rest, Silicon Valley consultant Alex Pang argues that we can be more successful in all areas of our lives by recognizing the importance of rest: working better does not mean working more, it means working less and resting better. Treating rest as a passive activity secondary to work undermines our chances for a rewarding and meaningful life. Whether by making space for daily naps, as Winston Churchill did during World War II; going on hours-long strolls like Charles Darwin; or spending a week alone in a cabin like Bill Gates, pursuing what Pang calls "deliberate rest" is the true key to fulfillment and creative success. Drawing on rigorous scientific evidence and revelatory historical examples, Rest overturns everything our culture has taught us about work and shows that only by resting better can we start living better."--Dust jacket.</p>

Rest : why you get more done when you work less / Alex Soojung-Kim Pang.

Cambridge studies in philosophy and the arts

ACLS Humanities E-Book.

Performance and authenticity in the arts / edited by Salim Kemal and Ivan Gaskell.

"1000 Handshakes" is a performance piece during which the artist shakes hands with as many people as possible, gradually changing the invisible microbial community in the palm of his hand. Periodically, assistants take a swab from the skin, and the samples are analyzed in the lab to reveal how our contact with others shapes the microbes between us. This ongoing project has been performed in different cities around the world (including Copenhagen, Montreal, San Francisco, Perth, Berlin and Baltimore) as a way to map our collective microbiome using scientific data.



Production of the 'microbiome selfies' involved many different steps. Following the collection of the microbiome samples, bacterial DNA was extracted, amplified and sequenced to create the bioinformatic data shown in this series. The nodes of the networks represent bacterial DNA sequences, and two nodes are connected by an edge (line) when the bacterial DNA sequences have more than 95% similarity. The different colours correspond to distinct samples collected at every 50th handshake, from 0 to 1001. 



This image corresponds to the 11th image in this 21-part series, showing the extensive microbiome resulting from 500 handshakes.

1 print : process, line block ; image 14.7 x 12 cm

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Bacterial microbiome mapping, bioartistic experiment

Inexplicable acts : free events / Wellcome Collection.

Mark Smith with historical and contemporary hearing aids

Bacterial microbiome mapping, bioartistic experiment

Bacterial microbiome mapping, bioartistic experiment

Bacterial microbiome mapping, bioartistic experiment

Rest : why you get more done when you work less / Alex Soojung-Kim Pang.

Performance and authenticity in the arts / edited by Salim Kemal and Ivan Gaskell.

Bacterial microbiome mapping, bioartistic experiment

One figure plays the piano and another the violin: two onlookers stand in the background. Process print after R. Boix.

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More filters

Active filters:

Bacterial microbiome mapping, bioartistic experiment

Inexplicable acts : free events / Wellcome Collection.

Mark Smith with historical and contemporary hearing aids

Bacterial microbiome mapping, bioartistic experiment

Bacterial microbiome mapping, bioartistic experiment

Bacterial microbiome mapping, bioartistic experiment

Rest : why you get more done when you work less / Alex Soojung-Kim Pang.

Performance and authenticity in the arts / edited by Salim Kemal and Ivan Gaskell.

Bacterial microbiome mapping, bioartistic experiment

One figure plays the piano and another the violin: two onlookers stand in the background. Process print after R. Boix.

Stay in the know

Wellcome collectionWellcome Collection

Finding us:

Opening times:

Today's opening times

Wellcome collection