Artist Statement

June 11-16, Auditorium, Centre for Contemporary Art Barcelona. Public Event.

Programme in collaboration with Sónar.

Keywords: Genomic technologies, terraforming

‘Plot’ is a story of the revelation and a ‘site’ of design. The more we zoom in, the more the micro is interconnected with macro, so the strict distinguishing of scales of design and its effects becomes less important. Facing human-engineered ecological disaster will require a more curated and informed response. This demands major environmental interventions through reframed and more granular actions of design and decision making.

The project is a call to recalibrate the approach to design by recognizing the microbiome as an additional parameter and overlooked agent of terraforming. The technological mediation of the continuous, interchangeable and entangled relationships between microbiomes, environments and ourselves allows for higher resolutions of perception in the way we compose synthetic landscapes. When germ theory originally framed microbes as pathogens, design was driven by “sterilization” and aimed at the “extermination” of microbial life and the production of highly tempered and sealed environments, propelling a culture of cleanliness. With the potential advancement and accessibility of metagenomic sequencing, we may be at the cusp of refining our understanding of these microbial systems, and reframing our design practices from the reactory to the nuanced, adaptive, and proactive. Manifesting alternative, more precise compositions across various sites and scales of intervention, the project narrates how sequencing could become a potential design tool to inform deliberate terraforming.

https://microplot.strelka.institute/

• Alla Semenovskaya is a researcher and strategist based in UAE. Her recent work has specialised in research projects and site specific collaborative practices, exploring emerging technologies, environmental policies, climate interventions, and implications of how human/non-human interconnections inform our perception of assembled ecosystems.
• Eva Lindsay is an architect and set designer. Since graduating from the Glasgow School of Art she has worked in various design studios in Rotterdam, Paris, Brussels and Berlin. Her work has specialised in projects ranging from problematising planning systems to futureproofing infrastructure space. The work has been displayed in various formats including exhibitions, films and publications.
• Dhruv Shah is an Architect and Architectural Historian residing in Vadodara, India. He was also a fellow of the «The Terraforming» program at Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design. He is involved in academia, research, and curatorial architectural practice, working with the medium of Text and Image in the intersection space of projected power, politics, and placemaking.