by Kristine Matusalem
June 29, 2009
[See the original entry on Multiply.com]

I left home early last Thursday to have my first hands-on experience with Biomodd. The night before, I viewed the website and to-do list. During my (rather long) trip to Los Banos, I was thinking of how I could contribute to this project that has long started. I did not take the MMS 198 class during the summer since I know I would not have enough time to complete the requirements for the course. I visited the lab a couple of months ago and was (and still am) amazed with how the project is unravelling. Another source of my apprehension is the fact that I am not familiar with gaming, programming and all that techie stuff, plus, I am not knowledgeable about plants, fishes or ecosystems. But I wanted to get involved, I wanted to learn. So there I was that drizzly Thursday morning, headed to Los Banos.

When I arrived at the lab, Diego immediately showed me around. I realized that the structure is huge. (I learned later on how much stuff is going inside the structure; so, technically, the size is just about right.) As I go about familiarizing myself with the structure, it dawned to me that there are still lots of work to be done. During my brief stay at the lab, I re-potted two plants: the big one on the center and the "droopy" plant. I tried to "plant" the vine unto one of the posts while hoping that I was doing it right and that the plant would live. While watering the plants, I was thinking about how the sculpture would look like when it's done, how it would be transported from Los Banos to Manila, how to make the posts "furrier", etc.

It was quite an experience for me to work at the Biomodd lab. I did not expect that I could actually do something tangible for the project (due to reasons mentioned above). I hope that as I spend more time getting to know the structure and the relationship of each of its components, I would be able to be more productive. I believe that it was not bad for a first encounter. I got my hands dirty and I enjoyed it. :)