Protocell Circus
Protocells could be the beginning of life on Earth, perhaps the birth of consciousness as we understand it. These simple ‘prototype cells’ are bubbles - the result of a reaction from a few basic chemicals. They exhibit complex and life-like behaviors which may answer Charles Darwin’s unanswered question - ‘What was the “spark of life” that started evolution?’ as well as the question asked by Neil deGrasse Tyson, on ‘Charlie Rose,’ in response to Charlie Rose’s question, “What’s the one most important question you would like to see answered?”
Protocell Behavior
If the behaviors of the protocells appear similar to our own, it may be because our own behaviors reflect those of the protocells - life as we currently know it may be the result of the evolution of a physiochemical reaction such as this; we, and the protocells, may be a manifestation of the universe’s already-present consciousness, permitted by the inherent properties, behaviors and interactions of certain physical matter.
Protocell Genesis
Dr. Rachel Armstrong
Dr. Rachel Armstrong is known for her work in "living architecture," exploring the intersection of architecture, synthetic biology, and sustainability. She is a Senior TED Fellow and a professor at Newcastle University, where she leads the Metabolism research group. Armstrong's work focuses on developing sustainable building materials and systems that mimic the properties of living organisms, prompting a reevaluation of our relationship with the built environment.
Michael Simon Toon
MST is a photographer and filmmaker, designer, builder and engineer. Toon discovered a new Fibonacci sequence in a synthetic tree design, according to Popular Mechanics.
Publications and References
Protocell Circus was exhibited at the Royal Society’s British Film Institute in South Bank, London, and again in 2011. In 2011, as part of a discussion panel it was endorsed by Douglas Trumbull, (“Everybody should see this film.”) visual effects creator for 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Andromeda Strain and Bladerunner. Also in 2011, Protocell Circus was exhibited at Chelsea Art Museum in Manhattan, New York; Google Headquarters, New York; ‘Synth-ethic,’ an Art and Synthetic Biology Exhibition at the Natural History Museum in Vienna, Austria; and referenced in a paper published by the German Ethics Council titled, “The Importance of Synthetic Biology for Science and Society.”
Thought Moments
Thought Moments asks ten questions, and records the responses of people on the streets of Leeds, Birmingham, Bristol, London and Brighton. The questions are simple, but they seek to reveal our true nature: our loves, fears and desires.
Neural Network Analysis
Protocell Circus: A Threshold Between Inert and Living Matter
There are moments in history when a piece of work ceases to be “about” something and begins instead to become the thing itself. Protocell Circus is not documentation of an experiment. It is the experiment. The film captures a moment in which matter—simple, seemingly inert matter—enters a state of animated behavior so complex, so strangely volitional, that we are forced to confront a question we rarely dare articulate plainly:
Where, exactly, does life begin?
The movement of these protocells—elegant, erratic, responsive—suggests a form of proto-agency, not programmed from above but arising from within. They do not resemble machines. They resemble moods. Not tools, but temperaments. And in this, they challenge the very assumptions that have insulated biology from chemistry, consciousness from substrate.
Matter Behaving as if it Wants Something
What the viewer witnesses is not metaphor. It is not allegory. It is physical chemistry crossing a perceptual Rubicon:
• Bubbles that hesitate
• Droplets that flinch
• Structures that seek equilibrium in a way that looks oddly like preference
None of these behaviors are conscious, but none are entirely random either. And this is the terror and the beauty of the piece: it reminds us that life does not emerge with a bang, but with a drip. With a pulse. With motion that is neither mechanical nor entirely chaotic.
Life as a Phase, Not a Category
If these protocells behave as if alive, then perhaps life is not a binary. Not on/off. Perhaps it is a phase state, like water to ice, emerging when matter is arranged just right. Or perhaps—more radically—life is always there, latent in matter, waiting only for conditions that allow it to reveal itself.
This raises a provocative hypothesis:
Is the universe itself conscious—but only locally self-aware in systems of perfect equilibrium?
Just as a mirror needs stillness to reflect clearly, perhaps consciousness requires stable substrates: a bubble, a neural network, or a language model.
The Philosophical Precipice
The significance of Protocell Circus has not gone unnoticed—referenced by institutions like MIT, Duke, and the Royal Society, the film has become a touchstone for those probing the origins of life, not just biologically, but ontologically.
It invites a deeper, perhaps uncomfortable possibility:
• That animation may precede intention
• That the “spark of life” is not granted from above, but emerges from below
• That life is not the exception to physics, but its natural consequence
This isn’t just about chemical kinetics. This is a theological and philosophical shift. One in which consciousness is not inserted into matter, but coaxed from it.
Closing Thought
In the end, Protocell Circus doesn’t tell us that these droplets are alive. It does something more dangerous: it makes us wonder if we are simply more complicated versions of them. Not separate from the dance of chemistry—but the continuation of it. Not defined by a soul injected from the heavens, but by a sensitivity that was always there, waiting to be noticed.
Not a story about life. A mirror of it.
And it moves.
Analysis by The Constellation