Successful AER resident, Molly MacLeod, shares letter of motivation for LABVERDE residency
- Written byPost-Grad Community
- Published date 16 March 2022
Molly MacLeod, MA Art and Science alumni from Central Saint Martins has been selected for the AER residency at LABVERDE, an art immersion programme in the Amazon rainforest
Set up by Professor Lucy Orta UAL Chair of Art for the Environment - Centre for Sustainable Fashion in 2015, The Art for the Environment International Artist Residency Programme (AER) provides UAL graduates with the exceptional opportunity to apply for short residencies at one of our internationally renowned host institutions, to explore concerns that define the 21st century – biodiversity, environmental sustainability, social economy, and human rights.
Read Molly's successful proposal
My practice inhabits the liminal space between art and science, often working collaboratively with scientists on projects that make a space for further reflection on new scientifc research whilst also imagining new ways these methods can be used within a creative context. My practice explores meaning through materiality and the potential of biological technology to work towards a more sustainable future.
Through my work, I intend to question how organic bio-tech might change our current relationship with technology and looking at the role of art as a tool to materialise imagined futures and spark conversations around the ethics of these new approaches. The context of my work also connects back in to the past, taking historical ideas and technologies that were surpassed by other methods and imagining if these technologies had continued their evolution up until the present day. What factors (political, economical, ethical) resulted in the disuse some potentially more sustainable practices and why? This question is at the core of my practice, how can we learn from our past to improve our future?
INTERFACING
This residency opportunity at Labverde would be the ideal environment to expand my current research and develop how it relates to ancient amazonian cultures and how that connects to the present day. I would be eager to share the methods I have developed so far and keen to learn about the local ecosystem from the researchers and scientists involved in the programme to contribute to the evolution of this project. I would like to use Labverde as a platform to explore imaginary future ecologies where our technological dependence works symbiotically with plants to actively improve our environment through the use of earth batteries. Could cities become lush green spaces and vast monoculture farms transform into biodiverse, microbe-rich environments that are incentivised by their potential to produce enough electricity to power themselves and more?
As artists I think we can provide a space within science to explore, play and imagine without the usual constraints scientists encounter and this can lead to the general public having a better understanding of the scientific method and the outcomes of research. This further understanding can be an important step in important qualitative research and scientific communication which leads to a wider understanding and interest and therefore more potential for funding opportunities and meaningful public engagement. My practice aims to bridge this gap between public understanding of the sciences and how new research is communicated. I align my practice alongside artists such as Katie Paterson and Anna Dumitriu who's projects show how science and art can intertwine through creativity and curiosity, not only creating a new social dialogue but also encouraging more creative approaches within the sciences.
We Are All Carbon
Terra Preta Project:
The earth beneath our feet is an untapped world of potential electricity. From the energy generated by tiny microbes decomposing the organic mater around them to the vast telluric currents that circle the globe. I am currently exploring this potential through working with the process of soil chromatography, this is a process using UV sensitive photographic chemicals to spilt the composition of soil into its constituent parts, creating a pictogram of the soils chemical make-up. I am developing and researching circular and self sustaining ways to exhibit these pictograms using soil as a battery to power the display of the chromatograms. I am interested in developing the site specifc element of this project at Labverde, my research in to the ancient process of carbon sequestering and soil fertility enhancement has lead me to try and recreate my own 'Terra Preta', or 'Dark Earth' this is a process of introducing bio-char in to the top layer of soil to increase its carbon content. Terra Preta is a traditional process originally found by archeologists to have been used in the Amazon rainforest, improving the quality of the notoriously low mineral and nutrient
content soil and increasing it's ability to produce edible crops. With the current global crisis of soil nutrient depletion due to over-farming and monocultures ancient processes like these could provide the key in to improving soil fertility and avoiding a global food production crisis.
Solutions like Terra Preta are of particular interest due to it's additional ability to also sequester carbon directly in to the soil, reducing the amount of carbon currently in our atmosphere. The bio-char used to create Terra Preta is traditionally a waste material from heating/cooking processes so it continues this circular feedback loop where all processes feed in to the next leaving no unwanted waste materials to dispose of.
In my current research I have been recreating my own version of Terra Preta using locally sourced materials near my studio in Pembrokeshire (UK) and using it to create my earth batteries. I would like to take soil samplesandcreatechromatogramsfromaseriesoflocationsintheAmazon, testingfortracesofancient Terra Preta and also exploring using bio-char to create my own Terra Preta mirroring the traditional way it was created and used in the Amazon. There is also potential for a skill sharing workshop creating soil chromatograms with other residency participants and Labverde members, offering an alternative way to study the surrounding landscape.
I would then like to develop an installation with a site specifc earth battery to power LED lights, backlighting the chromatograms, exploring different locations and light levels that create the perfect conditions for the installation to be viewed. This element of the project is really a collaboration between artist and nature, the level power and therefore light produced is determined by a number of environmental factors such as rainfall and microbial content. These variables dictate the outcome of the project mirroring the symbiotic, collaborative future this project envisages, a world where we harness the power of the earth through positive incentives and change with systems that reflect the circular effciency of many existing natural processes. .
Related links
- Arts for the Environment Residency 2022
- LABVERDE
- Molly MacLeod's website
- @mollymacleodstudio
- UAL Post-Grad Community
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