Semi-living tissue cultures, mice with kinks in their tails, snails and paintbrushes – all part of everyday life for SymbioticA, an innovative research hub at the University of Western Australia that crosses the disciplines of art and the life sciences. Working with a facilitator of residencies, research, academic courses, exhibitions, symposiums and workshops for such varied folks as artists, science fiction writers, art historians, political theorists, geographers, scientists and musicians is endlessly exciting. Put simply, SymbioticA blows Bomba's mind.

Bomba's work with SymbioticA also marries science with art. Why print a bog-standard booklet when we could use a diecut and some clever folding to turn an economical single page into both an eight page brochure and a large format poster? So too, imagery developed for SymbioticA marries traditional anatomical drawings with contemporary vector illustration. And it is not every day we get to illustrate an axolotl.