Signals Below the Surface
Artist: Jazmyn Crosby, Interdisciplinary
Researcher: Dr. Dustin Flannery, Attending Neonatologist, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Science subject: Neonatal infectious disease
Signals Below the Surface
Hand printed wallpaper, listening tubes, and video
2026
Signals Below the Surface is an installation inspired by Dustin’s research into neonatal infectious disease and the microscopic world within the human body. Hand-printed wallpaper draws from the forms of E. coli strains studied in the lab, alongside other real and imagined microbial shapes. The palette is informed by Gram staining, a laboratory technique used to help identify bacteria through dyes including crystal violet and iodine.
At the center of the collaboration is the idea of communication across scales and what it could mean to communicate with this microscopic world. Would it be like talking to a friend or a stranger? Dustin’s research explores ways to target harmful strains of bacteria while preserving the beneficial microbes that help a healthy microbiome thrive. The work expands that scientific question into a more speculative one: what might it mean to communicate with the microscopic ecosystems living inside us? Ultrasound allows us to see the inside of our bodies– mysterious, unknown places, lived in but perceived as separate from our life on the surface.
What might it be like to communicate at the scale of a virus? Talking tubes allow prompts and listening opportunities, and speculative visual moments of connection at imperceptible scales. Together, the visual and interactive elements encourage us to reconsider our relationship with microbes, not simply as threats, but as members of complex ecosystems that exist within and around us.
Dustin and Jazmyn’s collaboration has taken them into one another’s worlds, from the hospital and NICU to Jazmyn’s art studio. Through these visits, each has gained a deeper understanding of the other’s perspective and process, creating space for scientific research and artistic practice to influence the work together.
Their exchange has also generated some of the materials and ideas incorporated into the installation. Dustin contributed hospital tubing that Jazmyn is integrating into the wallpaper design, while language from an earlier booklet Jazmyn created featuring Dustin’s work is helping shape the exhibition narrative. The pair are also coming together for the printmaking process, continuing a hands-on collaboration that moves fluidly between the lab, clinical environment, and studio.
Artist: Jazmyn Crosby
Jazmyn Crosby is an interdisciplinary artist whose work investigates communication, technology and ecological resilience. Born and raised in New Mexico, Jazmyn lives in Philadelphia where she received her MFA from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture.
She got her BFA from the University of New Mexico. Jazmyn is an educator at several universities in the Philadelphia area, and is a founding member of Graft Gallery/Collective and is a current member of the Bio Materials Working Group.
Researcher: Dr. Dustin Flannery
Dr. Dustin Daniel Flannery is a neonatologist and clinical epidemiologist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on infections in preterm newborns.
Currently, he investigates how E. coli evolves from a harmless colonizer into a life-threatening infection in newborns, using national data and genomic science to guide prevention. Through ARx, Dr. Flannery aims to make the unseen biology of neonatal infection more visible and understandable to broader audiences.