ecologicStudio explores cyber algae farming with HORTUS

 
cyber algae farming
ecologicStudio exhibits HORTUS
all images courtesy of ecologicStudio

ecologicStudio explore algae farming with ‘HORTUS.PARIS’, an experimental prototype which harnesses this agricultural technology to host a number of micro- and macro- algal organisms. on show at the EDF foundation in paris, within the ‘alive exhibition‘ until september 1st, 2013, ‘HORTUS. PARIS’ encourages the engagement of the visitors to the exhibition through what the london-based calls ‘cyber gardening’. the full-scale working model is equipped with ambient flows of energy (light radiation), matter (biomass and carbon dioxide), sensing technologies and a custom-designed virtual interface which processes digital information (tweets, images, stats)–bringing these components together to induce multiple mechanisms of self-regulation and evolving novel forms of self-organization.

cyber algae farming – visitors are invited to contribute to the manmade ecosystem first hand. as algal organisms require carbon dioxide to grow, patrons can contribute to the living installation by activating an air pump system within photo bioreactors to adjust the nutrients’s content; oxygen is then released as a response, feeding the growth of the single celled organisms until they percolate onto a filtering system: HORTUS’s harvesting terrain. data is delivered through ‘HORTUS’ feeding its emergent virtual garden, accessible via smartphones in which participants locally and globally send tweets to nurture the ‘virtual plots’–a computer generated sedimentation process enriching the direct material experience of the visitor turned ‘cyber gardner’.  

the system is equipped with ambient light, sensing technologies and a custom-designed virtual interface

QR codes adorn each of the ‘plots’ in which visitors can access information about the garden’s progress

details

the base of manmade farming system

section

plan view