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EcoGuards

#alive #critical #dark #growing #immersive #posthuman

Materials and media

Installation with video, sound, recycled electronics, acrylic cases, algae and fungi

Year

2024

Exhibitions

Grassi Museum Leipzig November 2024-August 2025

– Speculations on man-nature-machine ecologies

This hybrid installation incorporates video, sound, recycled electronics and biomatter to envision a near future where a global AI, designed to protect the planet, takes radical measures to preserve nature amidst the escalating environmental crises we face.

Through transmedial story-telling, it challenges us to consider the ethical dilemmas of autonomous decision-making and whether we could coexist with an ecological AI.

In the near future, the earth and its environment have changed. Mega-corporations monopolize resources, and continue to exploit and pollute nature. In a last-ditch effort to save the planet, a global AI is created to represent natural rights and conservation: the EcoGuards. The AI develops autonomous decision-making, and interprets environmental threats without human judgment. This leads to anti-human orders from the algorithm, since any activities that harm nature are understood as a direct threat.

With support of: Stiftung Kunstfonds

 Video credits: 

  • Data: Satellite imagery: modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2018-24) / ESA
    Sound samples: freesound.org @Jovica – 105154, @Badgie42 – 397178