Bacteria cultures grown on resin plates decorated these LED lamps by designer Jan Klingler, on show as part of the Young Swedish Design exhibition at ArkDes in Stockholm.
The lamps come in two versions, a round light that can be hung on the wall and a table lamp reminiscent of a laboratory flask, but both centre around a disc of brightly coloured bacteria.

The Bacteria lamps merge Klingler's interests in industrial design and microbiology. After his "eureka moment" that the two disciplines could be combined, he worked with a microbiologist at the university hospital in Stockholm to develop the idea.
"I wanted the aesthetic to be very inspired by laboratory work, because usually when you have bacteria growing it's in petri dishes in the lab, so I wanted to make it quite abstract but still reminiscent of a laboratory," he told Dezeen.
To create the distinctive speckled designs, Klingler collects bacteria, yeast and funghi and leaves them to grow on a resin disc for between 24 and 48 hours.
In order to multiply, the bacteria requires a source of nourishment such as agar, a gelatine that comes from seaweed.

At the beginning of the process the ground is very fluid, but it then begins to harden and at this stage Klinger adds the bacteria and allows it to grow.
The various colours are produced either by the bacteria itself ? for example serratia, a bacteria found in the mouth, gives a strong orange-red colour ? or from the "nourishment ground".

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