NEW INC Y12 Creative Science: A Longitudinal Art–Science Study of the Microbiota–Gut–Brain Axis

Abstract

RationaleDespite growing recognition that emotion is shaped by the whole body, research models have remained largely brain-centric, overlooking microbial and biochemical systems in the gut.The microbiota-gut-brain axis (MGBA) represents one such underexplored layer: gut microbes generate neurotransmitters, modulate immune signaling, and produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) that actively reshape emotional states, operating as hidden variables within how the brain models and regulates internal bodily conditions (Sampson & Mazmanian, 2015;Seth, 2013).This project is grounded in a longitudinal self-directed study (2020-2022) conducted with Dr. Doosang Park (KRIBB), in which the artist's own stool samples collected across Germany, South Korea, and the United States, spanning a period of panic disorder and depression onset and a subsequent recovery phase, were analyzed via next-generation sequencing and compared against clinically documented affective records.Key SCFA-producing taxa were absent during peak affective dysregulation and re-emerged substantially following deliberate lifestyle stabilization, corresponding with documented psychiatric improvement.These findings established the project's core premise: mood as an emergent property of a distributed biological system that includes microbial life, not a psychological state located in the brain.This premise structured two installations to date: 95% Happiness (2022, with Dr. Park), which made the longitudinal microbiome data publicly visible as data physicalization (Figure 1), and Microbial Mindscapes (Ars Electronica, 2024, with Dr. Yoojin Oh, Johannes Kepler University; Figure 2), which expanded the framework through organoid imaging, AFM transporter data sonification (Zhu et al., 2025), and a voice interface mapping visitor food inputs to real-time audiovisual transformation (Ahn et al., 2025).