Mute Track

SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture Of Bacterial Yeast), polypropylene webbing, nylon thread, wooden growth tank on skates, 2 x 30 litre drums, 120 litre drum, Control box (Arduino & TEC Drive inverter), electric motor, rotating shaft and bearing, modified key clamp scaffold.Steel structure designed and built by Robert Mcleod Mechanism designed and built by Andrew Dixon 2025 SCOBY slowly grows in layers on top of the fermenting health beverage Kombucha, eventually becoming a fleshy, beige, wet, pungent and thick microbial mat. Bianca’s practice has focused on this material for the past nine years. She has grown it to enormous proportions and lifted or hoisted the SCOBY’s out of the growth tanks in installations with bespoke mechanisms or teams of performers. “Mute Track”’s version has grown over the last six months. It weighs 110 kilos and is shaped like a triangle, 180 cm long and 120 cm at the widest point. The SCOBY is sewn to a webbing structure which is attached to a rotating motor supported by a modified scaffolding structure.

The exhibition consists of a simple choreography. Starting from a resting position, the rotating motor gradually increases speed: the SCOBY goes from a slow circling to a faster movement that begins to stretch out its fleshy form. At 8 miles per hour, it appears to be flipping, from front to back. After stopping, the action begins again and is repeated on a loop during the exhibition.

As the exhibition progresses, the materiality of the SCOBY will change. The constant movement will bring tears and over time the SCOBY will become more dry and leather-like. There is a tension between it’s organic, fragile body and the robust metal mechanism that threatens to rip the SCOBY apart.