Micropolis: Restoring Bacterial Communities
Artist: Taj Rauch, Wherehouse
Researcher: Scott Garrett Daniel, Bioinformatics Scientist, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Science subject: C. diff infections
Micropolis: Restoring Bacterial Communities
Interactive installation (AV + tactile system)
2026
Micropolis: Restoring Bacterial Communities is an interactive, choice-driven installation exploring the experience of Clostridioides difficile (C. diff) infection treatment and the broader science of the human microbiome. Designed to be accessible to both general and scientific audiences, the work invites visitors to move through a branching narrative by making treatment choices using physical objects. Each interaction triggers corresponding audio and visual elements, creating a spatial, tactile form of storytelling that goes beyond a traditional screen-based experience.
Through the installation, the team hopes to make emerging microbiome research more accessible to people who may be affected by microbiome-related diseases, as well as to audiences who may not otherwise have access to the latest scientific information and discoveries in this rapidly evolving field.
Taj and Scott built their collaboration through a mix of in-person exploration and ongoing conversation. Taj visited several research spaces at CHOP to better understand the environments, processes, and ideas informing Scott’s work, while the pair continued developing the project through interviews and discussions both virtually and on site.
As the piece moves into its final stages, Scott is preparing to visit Taj’s workspace and see the artistic process firsthand. That back-and-forth between laboratory and studio has helped shape the work from both perspectives, allowing the science and art to inform one another throughout the collaboration.
Artist: Taj Rauch
Taj Rauch is an immersive game designer, theater maker, and filmmaker. His multidisciplinary practice centers the audience as the protagonist, merging interactive design, narrative systems, and performance to ask: in a myriad of worlds, would you still find yourself to be you?
Taj is the winner of the 2025 Black Immersive Creators Grant, an awardee of the Niantic Developer Accelerator Fund, and a recipient of a 2024 Residency with the Tony Award Winning Wilma Theater. His work has been exhibited in the IceBox Project Space, featured in the PAFA Museum, and played at the VGTVG Conference.
Researcher: Scott Garrett Daniel
Hailing from Huntington Beach, CA, Scott completed his B.A. in Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. He then completed his Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Arizona, with a thesis focused on the interplay between TGF-beta, colon cancer, and the microbiome.
Scott has worked as a Bioinformatic Scientist at the CHOP Microbiome Center since 2019, having published over 20 papers. His main project is currently the Human Virome Program, a wide-reaching effort to catalog the depth and breadth of viruses that live in / on / and around the human body throughout life. When he is not doing science, you can find him exploring his creative side with drawing, gardening, and creative writing.