ecosystem

Meanwhile In China

Yang Mu & Sai Bao – Matthias Schäfer (DE), Sofia Braga (IT)

Douyin 抖音, internationally known as TikTok, has become one of the world’s most successful apps and a leading platform for creating and sharing short videos. It was developed by Beijingbased Bytedance and is one of the few apps that has been successful outside the big firewall. To comply with Chinese law, Douyin is a completely independent app from TikTok. Although the user interface and logo look the same, the content is completely different and not accessible in the international version. The goal of this work is to explore and analyze this vast digital ecosystem from different perspectives: screenshots capture a moment in a rapidly changing environment, determined by Douyin’s artificially intelligent recommendation algorithm. These found images are then decontextualized without change to give visitors space and opportunity to think about them and gain insights into a delimited platform and its algorithms used to show you the most engaging content.

Probing the Planthroposcene: Excerpts from a Dis-service Society

Alexandra Toland (US/DE)

Can “ecosystem services” and disservices provided by plants be seen as phyto-technologies of multi-species societies? How are spaces of creative dissonance, resilience, and resistance created by outliers: pests, parasites, invasive species, and allergens? What moral agency do humans have in determining the assets and liabilities of plants during the environmental strains of the Anthropocene? These questions are explored through an assemblage of objects, images, and recordings featuring plants as protagonists in natural habitats along roadsides, probing what Natasha Myers (2016) has dubbed the “Planthroposcene.”

Triaina: Model A

TOHOKUSHINSHA FILM CORPORATION x AnotherFarm (JP)

Triaina is an ongoing large-scale art project that utilizes design and technology to create sustainable ecosystems that integrate man-made forms with nature. A sculpture made from concrete and α-amino acids is placed on the seabed and acts as a cultural artifact as well as a home to marine life, promoting an ecosystem that is a symbiosis between man and nature.

Thoughts on Day and Night

Maike Alisha Effenberg (DE)

By extending mechanical models from the 60s, you will find here a new approach towards nature and ecosystems. Contemplate the equality of the energy flow within a machine and within an organism. Both receive their energy from the light, react to it, and save it for processes at night. At least, this is what we think they do. So how much life do we find in a machine and how much construction do we find in nature?

Humus, Humanity & Humility

Julian Chollet (DE)

Humus is more important than art, money, or success. Humanity depends on intact ecosystems and fertile soil. Humility and responsibility will help our species survive.

Flora

Pim Boreel (NL)

Flora is a living audiovisual installation that explores the relationship between human beings, technology and nature. This installation is an airtight glass cube, totally cut off from the outside world. Within this cube, an ecosystem is growing based on condensation. Fractal-like spores are taking shape on the glass. When drops of condensation hit sensors inside the installation, light and sound impulses are set in motion. Set within a dark space, this creates an experience for the audience around the living entity that is Flora.

Biosphere

Joaquín Fargas (AR)

The Biosphere Project’s mission is to collaborate in raising awareness about the fragility of our planet Earth and the need to take care of it.