3SDC project (Sunlight, Soil & Shit (De)Cycle)
Sunlight_Soil__Shit_DeCycle_Documentation_2022_-_01.jpg | Credits: Daniel Grant
ah01.jpg | Credits: Oron Catts
SymbioticA_3SDC_first_pics-013.jpg | Credits: Daniel Grant
SymbioticA_3SDC_first_pics-024.jpg | Credits: Daniel Grant
SymbioticA_3SDC_first_pics-031.jpg | Credits: Daniel Grant
Sunlight, Soil & Shit (De)Cycle-3SDC project is a durational performative experiment dealing with contestable food system futures. An open (input dependent) circular system of biological food production, where the only output is vast amounts of (mostly useless) data.
In the name of sustainability, many new food production and agricultural ventures, such as cellular agriculture, propose systems that remove natural elements from the process of production. To automate and control food production, non-standardized elements such as sunlight, soil, and shit are removed in favor of artificial light, substrates, and fertilizers. The ideas of tech food systems presented as having less (or no) impact on the environment. We call these “Metabolic Rift Technologies.” These approaches call for a separation from nature following a similar mind-set that has led tech companies to promote the metaverse as a nature-free site for human habitation, obscuring the environmental (as well as physiological and psychological) costs of such existence. 3SDC was devised to explore Metabolic Rift Technologies. Bringing the farm to the lab and the lab to the farm, this project considers whether the means of production will decouple from nature. Will this metabolic rift be the precursor to open sustainable food systems?
The installation has four main components:
Compost incubator (Compostcubator) where mouse muscle cells ware cultured, as lab-grown meat. The tissue grown in the incubator is used in the alkaline hydrolysis system.
Alkaline hydrolysis system converts the “meat” and slaughterhouse refuse into fertilizer to feed the plants in the hydroponic systems.
Hydroponic systems (Soilless Farming Techniques) where plants grow. The plants are used as fodder for the Compostcubator.
The biological growing cycle is now complete, the only output of this cycle came from: The control room, where information from the many sensors we used was collected to generate a large amount of mostly useless data.
Sunlight, Soil & Shit (De)Cycle-3SDC project is a durational performative experiment dealing with contestable food system futures. An open (input dependent) circular system of biological food production, where the only output is vast amounts of (mostly useless) data.
In the name of sustainability, many new food production and agricultural ventures, such as cellular agriculture, propose systems that remove natural elements from the process of production. To automate and control food production, non-standardized elements such as sunlight, soil, and shit are removed in favor of artificial light, substrates, and fertilizers. The ideas of tech food systems presented as having less (or no) impact on the environment. We call these “Metabolic Rift Technologies.” These approaches call for a separation from nature following a similar mind-set that has led tech companies to promote the metaverse as a nature-free site for human habitation, obscuring the environmental (as well as physiological and psychological) costs of such existence. 3SDC was devised to explore Metabolic Rift Technologies. Bringing the farm to the lab and the lab to the farm, this project considers whether the means of production will decouple from nature. Will this metabolic rift be the precursor to open sustainable food systems?
The installation has four main components:
Compost incubator (Compostcubator) where mouse muscle cells ware cultured, as lab-grown meat. The tissue grown in the incubator is used in the alkaline hydrolysis system.
Alkaline hydrolysis system converts the “meat” and slaughterhouse refuse into fertilizer to feed the plants in the hydroponic systems.
Hydroponic systems (Soilless Farming Techniques) where plants grow. The plants are used as fodder for the Compostcubator.
The biological growing cycle is now complete, the only output of this cycle came from: The control room, where information from the many sensors we used was collected to generate a large amount of mostly useless data.
Lead artists: Oron Catts & Ionat Zurr
Lead media artist/tech director: Steve Berrick
Producer/conference manager: Chris Cobilis (SymbioticA)
Creative producer: Matt Gingold
Promo video by: Kenta McGrath & Joseph London
This project was researched, developed and produced at SymbioticA, The Centre of Excellence in Biological Arts, School of Human Sciences, The University of Western Australia.
With support from: The Department of Local Government Sport & Cultural Industries, Western Australia; The Seed Box – Mistra-Formas Environmental Humanities Collaboratory, Linköping University Sweden; assisted by the Australian Government through its principal arts funding and advisory body, the Australia Council for the Arts.
Oron Catts (AU) and Ionat Zurr (AU) are artists, researchers and curators, who formed the Tissue Culture & Art Project in 1996. Catts is the cofounder and director of SymbioticA (UWA) and was a Professor of Contestable Design at RCA, London. Dr Zurr is the Fine Arts discipline chair at the School of Design UWA and SymbioticA’s academic coordinator. They publish widely and exhibit internationally.
Steve Berrick (AU) works with code, specializing in designing highly technical interactive systems for performance and installation. His works place the audience as the centerpiece of the interaction, often facilitating a tactile creative process that is fed into a collaborative digital playground and he presents his work in theatres, galleries, museums, public spaces, and app stores. Steve has received awards for robot & technology design and software enabling crowd sourced place activation.
Oron Catts (AU) and Ionat Zurr (AU) are artists, researchers and curators, who formed the Tissue Culture & Art Project in 1996. Catts is the cofounder and director of SymbioticA (UWA) and was a Professor of Contestable Design at RCA, London. Dr Zurr is the Fine Arts discipline chair at the School of Design UWA and SymbioticA’s academic coordinator. They publish widely and exhibit internationally.
Steve Berrick (AU) works with code, specializing in designing highly technical interactive systems for performance and installation. His works place the audience as the centerpiece of the interaction, often facilitating a tactile creative process that is fed into a collaborative digital playground and he presents his work in theatres, galleries, museums, public spaces, and app stores. Steve has received awards for robot & technology design and software enabling crowd sourced place activation.