Our bodies contain many times more microbes than human cells, write Zsuzsa Millei and Jan Varpanen. The interdisciplinary Microbial Childhood project combines science and art. The project will take part in the international Mukamas puppet theatre festival from 11 to 15 September.
If the news is to be believed, microbes are a scary thing. Just when we survived the last pandemic, monkeypox comes knocking at the door. At the Paris Olympics, high levels of coliform bacteria in river water pose a health risk to elite athletes. Autumn is coming, prepare for waves of flu.
Yet friendly microbes are present in ways we often don’t even notice. Who doesn’t love the lovely smell and soft mouthfeel of freshly baked rolls? Saccharomyces cerevisiae, more commonly known as yeast, is there to delight us. While we munch on a freshly baked roll, Lactobacillus acidophilus, familiar from milk cartons, churns away in our intestines. It prevents disease-causing microbes from taking up residence in our gut and feeds on harmful cholesterol.
The coliform bacteria that plagued top athletes is actually one of our longest-lived friends – coliforms are the first bacteria to colonize our gut after birth. They produce vitamin K and create an environment where harmful microbes lose their power. But they shouldn’t be allowed in your mouth or stomach!
Although microbes are present in our lives in many ways, their world is still in many ways alien and unknown. You would think that a lot would be known about microbial interactions with children, as young children in particular explore the world by touching almost everything they encounter. It is through children in particular that microbial communities are able to travel. However, it is only in recent years that research into the interaction between microbes and children has begun to attract interest.
The Microbial Childhood research project approaches this topic by combining natural and social sciences and art. The project sees microbes not as our invisible enemies, but as our invisible friends. In fact, microbes are such close friends that they consider us their home. There are many times more microbes in our bodies than there are human cells.
Mira Grönroos, an ecologist involved in the project, was part of a research team that showed some years ago that playing in a yard enriched with natural materials boosts children’s immunity. Natural materials such as forest floor, you see, contain a wide variety of friendly microbes.
Artists Erika Aalto and Eva Bubla are also working on the Microbial Childhood project. They make microbes visible together with children. Aalto and Bubla invite children to tell imaginative stories about the lives we share with microbes. In this way, the project creates slightly different imagery of microbes and children living together than what we are used to when reading the news.
Aalto and Bubla’s work can also be experienced at the international Mukamas puppet festival, which will take place in Tampere from 11 to 15 September. On Saturday 14 September, Aalto and Bubla will lead two puppet theatre workshops, inviting children and their adults to explore the world of microbes. The participants build puppets and imagine what the world looks like through the eyes of microbes. Natural materials collected from the forest are used to build the puppets.
What would it be like to live on the surface of your skin? What little creatures can be found among the moss? What is it like to be a microbe?
Zsuzsa Millei is a professor of early childhood education at Tampere University. Her research focuses on the political aspects of childhood, as well as the entanglement of the biological and social in children’s lives.
Jan Varpanen is a project researcher in the Microbial Childhood project at Tampere University. His soon-to-be-completed doctoral dissertation addresses the philosophical foundations of education from the perspective of play.
