PH3 – FUTURE ARCHAEOLOGY

name: PH3 – Future Archaeology, work in progress; year start: 2017, year end: ongoing, techniques: micro-organisms & bacteria, organic materials, digitally fabricated objects, electronics ; dimensions: variable

In my Laboratory for Form and Matter I work with a range of biotic and abiotic elements. I view my lab as an open environment for experimentation, a space for contradiction, criticism and evaluation. I combine organic components such as vegetal matter, propolis and chitine, with living systems such as fungi and bacteria to create artifacts for the future. My micro-organisms grow biofabrics and I research how these membranes can be enhanced and made useful through embedded electronics and how more sensorial qualities can be implemented in these membranes via living technology.
Navigating between blueprints and ‘Proof of Concept’, my objects can be classified as ‘Future Archaeology’: fragments of a Forgotten World as well as fragments of a World To Come.
The installation ‘PH3 Future Archaeology‘ shows a collection of rarities. They are presented on a large laboratory table with a translucent top, accompanied by a geometrical cut-up artwork in cellulose skin and a large-scale lightbox representing a Scanning Electron micrograph of a honeybee tongue.
The visual language of my installation ‘PH3: Future Archaeology’ is multilayered.
Every artifact is the outcome of a particular experiment. They are part of a larger development for building and fine-tuning an Intelligent Guerilla Beehive, a mobile shelter for homeless honeybees. This radically new device tackles a domain where human and non-human actors collaborate to maintain the resilience of an ecosystem in decline.

 

 

future-archaeology_1_web
artifacts from the Laboratory for Form and Matter

future-archaeology_2_web
left: skin ‘Madras Grid’, 155 x 120 x 3mm (vegatal colored microbial skin – avocado, hibiscus, eucalyptus, stinging nettles)
right: Scanning Electron Micrograph (SEM) of a honeybee tongue, 120 x 80cm (aluminium box and duratrans print

table
bottom: light table, custom designed for presentation of Future Archaeology collection, 300 x 75 x 75
(metal open structure, opal plexiglass, 4 x TL lamps)