LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEM
LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEM is an ecosystem services estimation experiment. This artistic provocation seeks to estimate the orders of magnitude of critical ecosystem services fundamental to all planetary life processes.
A project by DISNOVATION.ORG — 2020... [Installation, automated cultivation, led grow lights, live streaming, custom softwares]
It is common to describe our relationships with society, the world, and the biosphere with metaphors from economics, which has specific understandings of value. Today’s prevailing economics conventions are unable to recognize the intrinsic value of the ecosystems on which all life depends. In cultures overdetermined by concepts from economics, we are left without adequate discursive instruments to socially or politically address the importance of ecosystem contributions to life on Earth.
LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEM is an experiment that consists of 1 square meter of wheat, cultivated in a closed environment. Critical inputs such as water, light, heat, and nutrients are measured, monitored and displayed for the public. This procedure makes palpable the immense scale of ecosystem contributions, and provides a speculative reference for a reckoning of the undervalued and over-exploited “work of the biosphere.”
LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEM is an experiment that consists of 1 square meter of wheat, cultivated in a closed environment. Critical inputs such as water, light, heat, and nutrients are measured, monitored and displayed for the public. This procedure makes palpable the immense scale of ecosystem contributions, and provides a speculative reference for a reckoning of the undervalued and over-exploited “work of the biosphere.”
CREDITS
Conception Disnovation.org, Baruch Gottlieb
Coding Jérôme Saint-Clair
Prototype developers Vivien Roussel, Thomas Demmer
Production IMAL Art Center, Brussels | Coproduction Biennale Chroniques, Aix-en-Provence
EXHIBITIONS
Post Growth, Espace Gantner, Bourogne, 2022
European Capital of Culture, Esch-sur-Alzette, 2022
Heures Sauvages, Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles, Paris, 2022
Ecophilia, TEKS, Trondheim, 2022
Life Support System, Aksioma, Ljubljana, 2022
Na de Groei / Post Growth, IMPAKT Centre for Media Culture, Utrecht, 2022
Artifice Numérique Festival, Le Hublot - Le 109, Nice, 2021
Après la croissance, University of Louvain-la-Neuve, 2021
There is no Planet B, Ars Electronica Center, Linz, 2021-2023
Life Support System (video), HMKV, Dortmund, 2021
Post Growth, 3 BIS F Art Center, Aix‑en‑Provence, 2020
Post Growth, iMAL Art Center, Brussels, 2020
Conception Disnovation.org, Baruch Gottlieb
Coding Jérôme Saint-Clair
Prototype developers Vivien Roussel, Thomas Demmer
Production IMAL Art Center, Brussels | Coproduction Biennale Chroniques, Aix-en-Provence
EXHIBITIONS
Post Growth, Espace Gantner, Bourogne, 2022
European Capital of Culture, Esch-sur-Alzette, 2022
Heures Sauvages, Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles, Paris, 2022
Ecophilia, TEKS, Trondheim, 2022
Life Support System, Aksioma, Ljubljana, 2022
Na de Groei / Post Growth, IMPAKT Centre for Media Culture, Utrecht, 2022
Artifice Numérique Festival, Le Hublot - Le 109, Nice, 2021
Après la croissance, University of Louvain-la-Neuve, 2021
There is no Planet B, Ars Electronica Center, Linz, 2021-2023
Life Support System (video), HMKV, Dortmund, 2021
Post Growth, 3 BIS F Art Center, Aix‑en‑Provence, 2020
Post Growth, iMAL Art Center, Brussels, 2020
PRESS
PRESS-KIT ☛ Flickr
Interview in Makery, 2021
Interview in Holo, 2021
Article in Klima #4, 2021
Project review in Low Tech Magazine, 2021
Project review in Tree Hugger, 2021
Project review in We Make Money Not Art, 2020
RESOURCES
Vaclav Smil (2018). A Critical Look at Claims for Green Technologies. IEEE-Spectrum.
Bill Tomlinson, Barath Raghavan (2021). How Sustainable is the Smart Farm?
Joanne Zygmunt (2007). Hidden Waters. A Waterwise Briefing.
Tega Brain (2018). The Environment is not a System. APRJA.
Anab Jain, Jon Ardern, Danielle Knight (2019). Mitigation of Shock. Architectural Design.
INPUTS
Breeding techniques inspired by Lee Hickey, Speed breeding, University of Queensland.
Accounting tricks inspired by J.M. Jancovici, Oh my climate !, Lecture at ESSEC.
Live stream design inspired by Premna Daemon by TerraO collective.
Exhibition design inspired by NASA, Growing plants in Space experiments.
Harvest frames design inspired by GEMINI style space food packets documentation by MELPAR. Inc.
Post Growth Prototypes patch design inspired by NASA STS-91 crew insigna.
PRESS-KIT ☛ Flickr
Interview in Makery, 2021
Interview in Holo, 2021
Article in Klima #4, 2021
Project review in Low Tech Magazine, 2021
Project review in Tree Hugger, 2021
Project review in We Make Money Not Art, 2020
RESOURCES
Vaclav Smil (2018). A Critical Look at Claims for Green Technologies. IEEE-Spectrum.
Bill Tomlinson, Barath Raghavan (2021). How Sustainable is the Smart Farm?
Joanne Zygmunt (2007). Hidden Waters. A Waterwise Briefing.
Tega Brain (2018). The Environment is not a System. APRJA.
Anab Jain, Jon Ardern, Danielle Knight (2019). Mitigation of Shock. Architectural Design.
INPUTS
Breeding techniques inspired by Lee Hickey, Speed breeding, University of Queensland.
Accounting tricks inspired by J.M. Jancovici, Oh my climate !, Lecture at ESSEC.
Live stream design inspired by Premna Daemon by TerraO collective.
Exhibition design inspired by NASA, Growing plants in Space experiments.
Harvest frames design inspired by GEMINI style space food packets documentation by MELPAR. Inc.
Post Growth Prototypes patch design inspired by NASA STS-91 crew insigna.
