Petri dishes and fibre optic cables are the stuff of this strangely beautiful custom chandelier by New Jersey design outfit MADLAB. Named Bacterioptica, as if in homage to some Sci-fi comic villain, its stretching and swirling forms hover ominously over its owner’s dinner table.

Its creators say:

Bacterioptica is designed to be adaptive, not only in its form and mechanics, but more importantly, in the way it evolves. Bacterioptica is not your typical chandelier, just as no family is a typical unit of interactions. Its on/off switch does not control it. Bacterioptica is alive. It grows. It is itself a household organism. It is living and breathing the same air and bacteria we are.

The award-winning architecture firm explore everything from interior fixtures to urban environments and was founded in 2003 by Petia Morozov and Jose Alcala.