TerraPort
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Project Description
Terraport, speculative but fully functional machine, stems from the human desire for interplanetary travel and initializing life on an uninhabited cosmic body. It aims to do so by terraforming martian regolith, with the help of frugal waste management of my female body.The regolith in the TerraPort installation is artificially composed according to the data collected from probes orbiting planet Mars, a planet that is connected to the notorious New_space paradigms.
Geographical Scope
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Urban or rural issues
Physical or other transformations
EU Programme or fund
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Description of the project
Summary
For a long time, many paradigms about transcendance of the Earth's atmosphere have been present, and so living beyond the home planet seems increasingly tangible. To a large extent, the development od modern space technology depends on the conceptual starting points that characterize both out understanding of interstellar space, as well as of life on Earth. If human's influence on Earth is so significant that we have had to declare a completely separate geological age, the Anthropocene age, the awareness of the reliance of our existance to other non-human earthlings will be so strong, that the universe can not be contaminated with anthropocentric cognition. In TerraPort project, I deal with the transformation of infertile soil into a fertile one. In terminology of science, this process is called terraforming. It's a long-term process in which loose material without any organic substances is slowly and gradually being mixed with nutrients, donated by and from me, and the soybean plant (Glycine max), which is planted in the regolith as a model organism with a significant cultural background. Soy is the plant tha I have chosen as my plant partner, due to its phyteostrogen content, which is combined with my intimate body, in order to terraform the soil. For the main challenge, I have chosen an artificially composed regolith from planet Mars, which is composed accordying to the ground analysis of sondas orbiting the red planet. Mars is a milestone in human mythology, as well as current object of enthusiasm for the possibility of colonizing the universe, by which the superiority of technological super-powers are measured. This provokes many speculative scenarios which, despite their remoteness into the idefinite future, are still very relvant for finding answers to the challanges of the Anthropocene in which the planet Earth revolves today. I artisitcally involve myself in the project of humanity as an interplanetary civilization humanity with literally my whole body.
Key objectives for sustainability
TerraPort is the attempt to bring forward challenges of the Anthropocene where harmful human activity on planet Earth should stop by changing the production mechanisms driven by contemporary neoliberal capitalism. This machine aims to raise awareness among those who interact with it to experience the scale of time and resources, necessary to repair something we usually take for granted. TerraPort refers to sustainability in a sense, that it deals with materials that we usually dismiss them on Earth as irrelevant, but on a planet Mars where we find only anorganic substances, these are key materials as they can help to turn martian regolith into a fertile soil and grow crops of eventually various plant in it. By the gesture of donating my body material and fluids into the regolith the process terraforming is triggered. Through the act of constant influx of human body materials and fluids a radical care for other nonhuman agents is communicated.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
TerraPort consists of a construction part, watering system, conveyor belt and 2 glass silos on each side of the belt, filled with martian regolith. Materials used to build TerraPort are only those that one brings along the interplanetary voyage. I artistically involve myself in the project of humanity as an interplanetary civilization with literal use of my (female) body: by carefully collecting and studying everything my body drops away as superfluous. With those I fill the containers in watering system from which the artificial circadian rhythm, built into the robot-machine, waters and fertilizes martian regolith. Below it, a conveyor belt filled with regolith moves 5cm/day. Regolith travels from one glass silo to another for exactly 30 days, which is the time frame for the soy to germinate, grow a long shoot (internode) and eventually dries out. After these 30 days, when the life cycle of soy is completed, the soil gets more and more filled with organic matter, dried soy and body debris, along microorganisms that spontaneously grow on rotting soybean stalks. Observing the path and time frame of conveyor belt is like observing a plant grow.
Key objectives for inclusion
The TerraPort project has been conceived as a collaborative work of a team of experts – artist, biotechnologist, engineer and supported by the various institutions of knowledge during the development and implementation of the project. I have started the project as a one-year artistic research collaboration with experts in BioTehna, a laboratory for artistic investigations of living systems located at Kersnikova Institute in Ljubljana. My investigation was firstly inspired by the lack of understanding of
female bodies in the space programs of NASA, Roscosmos, and ESA where the rockets and space stations were not adapted for women. From that technical and ideological dimension of the female body in space, my interest gradually developed into a more xenofeminist approach where care for nonhumans became my main point of interest. TerraPort is an installation meant to be installed in art galleries where visitors can interactively experience the exhausting practice of care for soil and plants. The installation will be accompanied by a log-book where every donation of organic nutrients, soy plants, timings, temperatures, humidity, ... is recorded so visitors will be able to investigate the process of transforming a dead regolith to a fertile soil informed with my female body. In addition I plan to menthor workshop for audience (15+ years) to get hands-on experience of turning regolith to soil and to discuss different aspects of the project. After TerraPort project will be concluded workshops would take place, where other open minded individuals could join and contribute to the process of terraforming.
Physical or other transformations
Innovative character
The project stems from the human desire for interplanetary travel and initializing life on an uninhabited cosmic body by terraforming it with the help of frugal waste management. TerraPort is speculative, but the fully functional machine, that turns a regolith with no
organic material in it into fertile soil by feeding it with organic waste from my female body. The water condensated from my urine, my lyophilized blood donations, collected and processed hair, nails, and skin are nutrients feeding the regolith and the soy plant (Glycine
max) which I choose as a model organism. Terraforming is taking place in the cycles of sprouting, growing, and dying of soy plant that takes one month which is exactly the time that conveyer belt travels from silo to silo, that are flipped at the end of each cycle. The regolith in the TerraPort installation is artificially composed according to the data collected
from probes orbiting planet Mars. A planet that is connected to the notorious paradigms, circling current space age.
