The project, called Selfmade, was funded by Synthetic Aesthetics, which creates collaborations between biology, art, and design. After being displayed in October at the “Grow Your Own” exhibition at the Science Gallery in Dublin, the initial reaction to the creation has been, unsurprisingly, utter repulsion.

But that’s the exact response the pair looks to question in order to begin a conversation about the environment in which we live.

“These cheeses are meant only as ‘food for thought,’ ” Agapakis said. “What we hope is that after the first visceral response of ‘ew,’ we can start to think more about the intersections of human and microbial cultures.”

“Culture” in two ways, that is.

“Cheese is a wonderful artifact with which to demonstrate