[ISEA2015] Artists Statement: Zane Cerpina, Julija Spicina & Stahl Stenslie — Earth Cancer

Artists Statement

Soil’s health is an important issue on a global scale. The soil sustains life and ensures our liveable conditions. Although it is a global issue, the preservation of this precious resource is dependent on our understanding of its value on a personal level. The Project’s motivation is to raise the awareness of our soil’s decreasing health. The cancer-like symptoms of the Earth are of the utmost importance to the public and are central to our survival.

The Earth Cancer is an ongoing action based art project, exploring the most important resource on the planet – our soil. The project is inspired by philosophers Timothy Morton’s and Bruno Latour’s thoughts on “ecology” and the connectedness between the human and the nonhuman in this world. The project raises the question of how we perceive the “nature” in the times of environmental crisis.

Earth Cancer project consists of several sub-projects such as soil samples, an autonomous drone (Dropbot), a soil scanner and a soil archivist application (TECA). All the elements of the project are developed to investigate the hypothesis that the soil on the Earth is infected with a cancerous disease and is slowly perishing: hence the title Earth Cancer. We are proposing a hypothesis that the Earth Cancer infection is spreading, threatening to infect the whole world.

This project shows various evidences of Earth Cancer and informs about its devastating impacts. The Earth Cancer Soil Archive shows physical samples of soils from such locations as Chernobyl, oil sand fields in Canada, Antarctica, as well as from various countries on all five continents. Currently we are more interested in exploring other planets more than our own. We should investigate Earth before Mars. Therefor the project is exhibited in planetarium like environments, acting as an observatory of our own planet.

Inside the Earth Cancer Planetarium the participants can also see several video streams from the Dropbots doing the research out in the fields and see one of the robots checking soil on the spot. Through the Earth Cancer Interface participants can follow the progress of the Dropbot, as it investigates the soil. Audience can also use The Earth Cancer Scanner – a sonic based device, to look for the Earth Cancer manually.

We have entered the Anthropocene – the age when the human forms the Earth. Our impact on the Earth is massive. More and more new problems connected to the soil’s health are continuously discovered. Environmental issues are often presented in a form of scientific data, abandoning traditional ways of storytelling. This might have led to alienation from our environment. The Earth Cancer narrative can help us rethink our values, and encourage us to take action towards our environment now.

The Earth Cancer is an experimental platform to engage with our imagination. The project becomes a lens to critically monitor our relationship with the environment and raise the interest in soil’s quality. Due to the uncertainty of the future it is important to integrate new ideas in our ecological thinking.  bezane.net/art/earth-cancer

Video: The Earth Cancer [not found on WWW]

  • Zane Cerpina is an Oslo, Norway, based artist, curator, organizer and publisher working within experimental new media and electronic arts. Zane currently works as project manager and curator at TEKS (Trondheim Electronic Arts Centre) and editor and manager at EE: Experimental Emerging Art. From 2015 – 2020 she worked as creative manager and editor at PNEK – Production Network for Electronic Arts, Norway. Zane is internationally active as a lecturer and presenter, she has been part of such venues as: Extravagant Bodies Festival by Kontejner (Croatia 2019) and ISEA (International Symposium on Electronic Art). bezane.net
  • Julija Spicina, Bachelor’s Programme in Art & Technology, Aalborg University, Denmark
  • Prof. dr. Stahl Stenslie is teaching and researching as a full professor in Art and Technology at Aalborg University, Denmark. He is an artist, curator and researcher specializing in experimental media art, interactive experiences and disruptive technologies. His aesthetic focus is on art and artistic expressions that challenge ordinary ways of perceiving the world. Through his practice he asks the questions we tend to avoid or where the answers lie in the shadows of existence. Keywords of his practice are somaesthetics, unstable media, transgression and the numinous. The technological focus in his works is on the art of the recently possible – such as i) panhaptic communication on Smartphones, ii) somatic and holophonic soundspaces, and iii) open source design of functional and lethal art weapons for low cost 3D print. He has been exhibiting and lecturing at major international events (ISEA, DEAF, Ars Electronica, SIGGRAPH). His PhD is on Touch and Technologies, see virtualtouch.wordpress.com.