Thoughts on the residency from Harry Singer, CEO:
"I had the pleasure of working with Zoe during her artist residency at Singer Instruments, and she was an absolute joy to collaborate with. Full of energy and curiosity, she embraced the challenge of working with scientific tools, learning incredibly fast and adapting to a completely new medium with impressive skill. She engaged effortlessly with our team—scientists, engineers, and researchers alike—bringing creativity, enthusiasm, and a fresh perspective to our work. Not only was she well-organised, but she also approached each experiment with determination and resilience.
The impact of these efforts has been profound:
🎯 It’s the single most powerful thing we’ve ever done to promote STEM.
🎯 It’s the single most powerful thing we’ve ever done to highlight the power of biology as a tool to tackle the climate crisis.
🎯 It’s the single most effective thing we’ve ever done to promote Singer Instruments as a cool place to work.
🎯 It’s been an amazing way to showcase and promote our new product, ColonyCam!
And now, thanks to Zoe, our walls at The Lab are covered in bioart, surrounding us with colourful biology as a permanent source of inspiration—a daily reminder of the importance of biological research and its real-world impact.
I would jump at the opportunity to work with Zoe again, and I highly recommend her for any future collaborations."
- Harry Singer, CEO
Visitor Comments:“We all enjoyed the artwork, and the children also had a lovely time engaging with the displays. Thank you! What a brilliant exhibition! Loved it. Will never look at North Hill in quite the same light. Thank you. Inner child went mad on the spinny things.”
“Absolutely fascinating. Amazing artwork!”
“Was very nice and interesting. What you can do with bacterial, fungi, culture!”
“Loved the multi-dimensional aspect of the exhibition. So much fun. Makes you smile.”
“Loved, great to see an industrial + commercial space integrated into the community.”
“The children learnt so much and enjoyed every activity – wonderful! Thank you.”
“Brilliant & so well explained.”
“Good for thought – science meets art in beauty & intrigue.”
“Utterly inspiring. Pushes the boundaries into the possible & impossible.”
“Fabulous – loved seeing ‘blown-up’ petri dishes and love the creative/collaborative nature of what you’re doing – cross-disciplinary work!”
“Such an unusual form of expression – great to see Zoe’s work. Inspiring.”
“INCREDIBLE! Thanks so much for showing us around & being so accommodating. Brilliant show, never seen anything like it.”
“Stunning. Spoke to Zoe & Fiona – loving the science & art. Would love to visit again.”
“Amazing show; stunning images. Wonderful science embracing art.
THE LAST DAY OF THE EXHIBITIONI'd like to thank all of the staff and volunteers at Singer Instruments for their encouragement and support and for keeping the exhibition running!
Special thanks go to Les Tetteh (Software Engineer), Fiona Kemm (Scientist) and Harry Singer (CEO of Singer Instruments) pictured here with me on the last day, in front of the Wall Of Biodiversity made by visitors to the exhibition.
Zoe Li, Programme Associate, Artist Development Programme, Somerset Art Works enjoys the exhibition:
Radio Interview
2nd October: Jenna Myles from Be Somerset Radio interviews Artist in Residence Zoe Snape and Harry Singer, CEO of Singer Instruments about their Bio Art Exhibition:
LISTEN HERE
Fireside Talk
26th September: Artist in Residence Zoe Snape and CEO of Singer Instruments, Harry Singer, discuss synthetic biology and bio art in front of a live audience.
School Visits
2024 SAW MICRO-COMMISSION
SEPTEMBER
EXHIBITION OPENS TO THE PUBLIC
2024 SAW MICRO-COMMISSION
EXHIBITION OPENING
100 guests attend the Exhibition Opening
AUGUST
Let’s play with agar! What other than food colouring can I use to alter its colour? Charcoal! Active charcoal! Yes it does explode in the autoclave, but try try again… Inspiration comes from many places; Ernst Haeckel's Art Forms in Nature (fascinating images, dreadful man) inspired me to explore black agar to enhance the detail of my growing mycelium and cultures, but it took some time to perfect!
JULY
I've been drawing in yeast strains onto agar in Plus Plates around a Bunsen burner flame (aseptic technique). Three days later, these eerie images emerged of North Hill in Minehead, from the location where Turner sat to sketch the same view. Remarkably, the circle that may be a sun or a moon, is in fact, a bubble. 
2024 SAW MICRO-COMMISSION
Beautiful bubbles! I’ve mastered the art of making coloured agar using food colouring, and a pipette method of controlling the bubbles - now let’s see what might grow in them! Regular photographs will be taken now using the super Colony Cam!
I traced the titles of JMW Turner’s paintings onto agar using various yeast cultures, and from barely visible marks these appeared within three days…exciting!
JUNE
SPECIAL DELIVERY
My mycelium has arrived by post! I can now take samples of Artist's Bracket, Turkey Tail, Chicken of the Woods and Birch Polypore - all thanks to Alderbed Mushroom Farm.
Photo: Phyllida Warmington.
My first experiments came out pretty well and informed how I may select colours, form bubbles, and most excitingly, what might grow from within the bubbles! 
ARTIST'S TALK 
Waiting for Petri dishes of artwork to grow takes patience and distraction, so I researched Turner’s ‘Somerset and North Devon Sketchbook’, from 1811 and found that not only had he visited Minehead, but that he had sketched North Hill in 1811!
I located his viewpoint, and headed to the beach to sketch and watercolour. Then I walked into the woods on the hill, taking air-samples, bird recordings, and leaving a few Petri dishes about to see what might grow on their surfaces.
Learning how to colour agar, avoid contamination, prevent bubbles in the Petri dish and how to use an electronic pipette, led to making lots of coloured bubble Petri dishes! Now, how to select colours? How to better control bubbles? How to invite contamination?
Everything I have learnt in my lab induction is feeding into my artwork in the studio and vice versa. I’m also grounding a little more in my local landscape and enjoying getting the bike around! More beach combing, sampling sea water and collecting leaves and flowers from North Hill…
2024 SAW MICRO-COMMISSION ANNOUNCEMENT
I'm delighted to have been awarded the 2024 SAW Micro-Commission to create a new body of work during my Artist Residency at Singer Instruments Lab in Minehead, Somerset!
Bio Art is a method of making art that involves the artist working with biology, live tissues, bacteria, living organisms and life processes. Singer Instruments in Minehead make robotics to accelerate research for biologists making the world a cleaner, greener, healthier place. Their global customer base are harnessing nature, engineering new microbial organisms to tackle some of humanity's greatest challenges.
Singer Instruments use Bio Art to engage with the public and help build understanding and confidence around synthetic biology. I have been appointed to be their Artist in Residence this summer, to create artwork and curate a group exhibition by artists and scientists exploring Bio Art, such as Finnish Artist Johanna Rotko and Brazilian Lab, Microbioworld.
I am working with Harry Singer, CEO of Singer Instruments who partnered me with scientist Fiona Kemm to make artwork using their laboratory. Responding to the Somerset Art Weeks festival theme of "Flux and Flow", I will examine my relationship with the land, sea, environment and local landscape, by drawing inspiration from the English Romantic artist J.M.W. Turner's observations of Minehead in his 'Somerset and North Devon Sketchbook', from 1811.
Expect to see my interpretation of J.M.W. Turner's landscapes grown from yeast in Petri dishes, E coli spin-art photography, mycelium-inspired photomontages and digital artworks.