Collaborating with Nature: Art and Sustainability
We took a look at some artistic practices working at the intersection of art and science, nature and technology.
A recent article in Monopol posed the question: ‘what can “climate art” achieve?’ In it, curator and art writer Raimar Stange posits that, while politicians remain largely inactive in the face of the climate emergency, art and culture can play a critical role in disseminating information, demanding accountability, and activating change.
From working with recycled materials to initiating public campaigns, there have, of course, been different artistic approaches in this field. One way artists and art organizations have been addressing the topic of environmental sustainability is by taking an interdisciplinary, collaborative approach — working at the intersection of art and science, nature and technology to reframe our relationship to the natural world. The Goethe-Institut, for example, launched the New Nature program in 2020, inviting artists and scientists across Canada, Germany, the United States and Mexico to engage on the topic of climate change and explore new approaches through immersive media. In the exhibition context, Mushrooms: The Art, Design, and Future of Fungi also took place last year at Somerset House in London, presenting artworks alongside upcycled and sustainable, fungi-based experiments in design, textiles and architecture.
There are also residency programs and artist initiatives specialized in material research and experimentation at the intersection of art and science. LABVA, for instance, is a biomaterials lab, communal kitchen and residency program in Valdivia, Chile. Organized by a team of designers, architects and biologists, LABVA takes a GIY (grow it yourself) and CIY (cook it yourself) approach to researching and developing biofibers and bioplastics from locally sourced organic materials and reused waste. And the Seaweed Appreciation Society International (SASi), initiated by artist Lichen Kelp, is an experimental platform for artistic research into seaweed and marine ecologies.
To take a closer look at some artistic practices in this area, we spoke to Hannah Fletcher, founder of The Sustainable Darkroom, and “moist media” collective Akyute, both of whom experiment and collaborate with plants and organic matter in practices that integrate science, art, nature and technology.
Hannah Fletcher, Rust-based cyanotype print, from the series Redox Reactions, 2019
Hannah Fletcher
The Sustainable Dark Room
Hannah Fletcher is a London-based artist whose work combines scientific techniques with photographic processes. With a long-standing interest in and passion for analog photography, Hannah has centered her practice on working sustainably in the field, using organic matter to produce cameraless images. In 2019, Hannah initiated The Sustainable Darkroom as a platform for learning, research and development of environmentally friendly alternatives, addressing issues such as the toxic chemicals used to develop film, the waste and pollution this generates, and the amount of water used to wash films and prints. Hannah has run workshops and participated in exhibitions at Tate Exchange, The Photographers Gallery, London, and Art Rotterdam, among others. She is also Co-director of London Alternative Photography Collective, and gives talks, organizes workshops and mentors in sustainable art practices at various venues and institutions.
Currently, she is an Associate Lecturer at Chelsea College of Art.
How has The Sustainable Darkroom developed since it was initiated in 2019?
The Sustainable Darkroom has grown more than I could ever imagine. Beginning from an initial self-funded residency that I organized in 2019. Which brought together 6 practitioners for 10 days, to ask ourselves the question; what do we mean by a more sustainable darkroom practice?
I then got a successful bid to Arts Council England in early 2020, followed by some funding from London Community support fund with the help of Guest Projects, Yinka Shonibare foundation. I ran 2 online residences in 2020 with those two lots of funding, produced another two publications off the back of the residencies and then realized that it was all too much for one person to handle on their own. I also knew that I wanted the initiative to grow in new routes, I needed a diversity of voices and approaches.
There is now a team of four of us; I work with Ed Carr, Alice Cazenave and Eileen White. I got to know all three of them during one of the residencies that I held during 2020. It’s amazing to know that there are people out there who are as passionate as me about this project.
What are some of the project’s long-term plans/aims in working towards challenging the environmental impact of the photographic darkroom?
As a team, we wrote a Manifesto and also launched a Patreon site, where we are facilitating a lively community of research, workshops and talks on a Discord server.
Alice and I are working on building a solar-powered website for The Sustainable Darkroom.
Ed and I are building a photographic garden in Leeds, the garden will be a research space that functions alongside a physical darkroom space he runs there; called Northern Sustainable Darkroom. The garden project is part of a year-long research and development residency, with which we will be working alongside and supporting seven practitioners to develop work that relates the garden to the darkroom. It’s a Genesis Kickstart Fund project, supported by the Genesis Foundation.
Eileen and I are running some environmentally friendly photography workshops at some galleries and festivals across the UK.
Over the next year we will be focusing on the garden in Leeds and will be sharing all of our research and outcomes from that in September 2022. In the meantime we will be providing more talks and workshops and getting our solar-powered website up and running. We are always open to ideas, collaborations and feedback though.
Hannah Fletcher, YQ Wheat, Phytogram on Silver gelatine paper, 2020
What drew you to work with analog photographic media and processes?
I owned a film camera before I owned a digital one. I was a teenager when I became interested in photography and It took me a while to save up to buy a DSLR. So, I began exploring photography with an old Pentax MEsuper SLR, it was my mum’s and had been sat in the loft for a number of years. I really enjoyed the clunky physicality of the camera, it didn’t even have a working light meter, so I got pretty good at estimating exposure settings. When I finally had enough money to buy myself a second-hand DSLR, I didn’t enjoy using it as much as I thought I would. I missed the heavy sound and feel of the shutter closing on the film camera and the limitations of the number of images on a roll of film.
My intrigue in processes and the materials of photography came not long after, I think around the same time I bought my digital camera. Once I’d learnt the basics of how to use the darkroom at my college, I would be there in my lunch break and between classes. This little dark cupboard space covered in graffiti opened up a whole new layer of photography for me. It became so much more than just taking a photograph; taking the photograph quickly became just one small part of the practice, of the action. I always worked alone in the darkroom at my college, as it wasn’t big enough to have more than 1 person in there at a time. With that I felt this sense of creative freedom when I was in there, I would dip images into the chemistries at strange angles, drag them across the bottom of the trays when they were full of sediment and take half fixed photos out of the bin to study the way they had continued absorbing the light after they had been discarded.
This fascination with the materiality of photography never left me, I tried working in more conventional photographic forms during my art foundation year. But quickly reverted back to exploring unfound lands in the darkroom and with light sensitive surfaces.
“I would dip images into the chemistries at strange angles, drag them across the bottom of the trays when they were full of sediment and take half fixed photos out of the bin to study the way they had continued absorbing the light after they had been discarded.”
You have worked with algae, mushrooms, and roots, among others, in photographic processes. What is it like to work with organic matter in this context?
Organic matter is alive and unpredictable. It has many affinities with the way that I work with photographic materials.
To many photographers, it feels horribly wrong to bring decomposing mushrooms, dirt or algae into a photographic printing space. These are usually very clean and ordered spaces, where nothing gets cross contaminated and everything is washed and dried for optimal archival preservation. But I was never really bothered about optimal archival preservation or meticulously removing dust from my negative. I was more interested in new collaborations and unknown sites of happening taking place amongst photographic materials.
Working with organic materials in a context where they would not normally be found makes you think in new ways. I find that by limiting my focus down to just one material, new connections, pathways and understanding around what that material is and what that material can be are opened up.
Image from Natural Chemistry Chemigrams workshop, run by Hannah during The Sustainable Darkroom Residency, at XYZ books, Lisboa 2019
Akyute
Natalia Gima (Argentina), Magdalena Hart (UK/Uruguay),
and Miriam Felici (Italy)
Founded in 2019, Akyute develops soundscapes and interactive installations that draw on technology to reconnect human experience to the natural world, establishing fluid systems of communication across species. Investigating plant biofeedback and working with concepts of technological nature and transhumanism, Akyute also organizes workshops on nature and digital integration and has participated in residencies at FemArt, Barcelona and Centre for Creative Solutions in Lovinac, Croatia, among others. For the latter, they produced “Photo Microbial Fuel Cell” while researching the use of photosynthesis as a source of electrical energy to develop a permanent, sustainable interactive installation. Their most recent installation was developed for Roots & Seeds XXI. Biodiversity Crisis and Plant Resistance, a cooperation between Ars Electronica, Quo Artis, Leonardo-OLATS, and the University of Barcelona.
Akyute Collective, Live Biofeedback Performance Mago HartLive
Site Specific Interactive Installation, Barcelona 2021
In your collective practice, you bring together technology and nature in interactive installations and audiovisual works. What drew you to work with plants in this digital, technological context?
We were drawn to the concept of "non-human intelligence" whilst developing a co-creative circuit board for an interactive installation in 2019. Researching the possibilities between nature and technology, we came across the experiments Cleve Backster conducted in the 70s exploring the environment of biodata visualization. His work, alongside a series of other projects we had come across at the time, questioned the consciousness of plants, something completely unheard of by each of us...
This was a turning point, not only due to the change of paradigm we were processing whilst studying these kinds of topics; but the act of coming together and collaborating from very different backgrounds and approaches to design was very empowering.
We couldn’t believe neither of us had ever heard of these kinds of concepts before, not only did it make us question why we had spent our lives thinking of plants as a non-intelligent species, but also realizing the necessity of scientific communication intersecting with art.
This led us to develop our first prototype working with nature titled “Symbionic”, a “wearable” created to modulate sound through touch. The system was connected to a series of plants, creating a generative sound performance. This was followed by the adaptation of the format and system to create our first interactive installation “Mirror Mirror” showcased at MUTEK ES 2019.
Both “Symbionic” and “Mirror Mirror” were experiences focused on leaving evidence of the intangible reflection of nature on ourselves and vice versa, something most humans living in western cultures are oblivious to in their daily lives.
Akyute Collective, Live Biofeedback Performance Mago HartLive Site Specific Interactive Installation, Barcelona 2021
“By integrating “nature” into the art and design scene we can bring alternative narratives and solutions to society.”
What would you say are some potential impacts of technological nature for the art and design scenes?
These kinds of crossovers blur the borders between the scientific and humanistic culture, creating what’s known as the “third culture”. Thanks to the open-source platforms and libraries, these kinds of multidisciplinary exchanges are enabled, allowing both designers/artists and technologists/scientists to appropriate new mediums.
By integrating “nature” into the art and design scene we can bring alternative narratives and solutions to society, whilst simultaneously, the scientific and technological fields can establish great communication with the public through art and design.
Some of your recent projects include “Photo Microbial Fuel Cell” -- a prototype for a permanent, sustainable installation -- and another installation for “Multidisciplinary Garden Cartography” as part of Roots & Seeds XXI. What are you working on now, or what are your plans for developing such work further?
Currently, we're focused on further developing our performative installation “Paisaje Sonoro” (“Soundscape” translated from Spanish to English) for NEO at Cosmo Caixa in Barcelona for an Installation in October. We’re looking into new sensors to connect to our system to bring together more elemental materials and natural systems in our work. Simultaneously, we are constructing the physical interface and designing the lighting of the set on a much larger scale, bringing concepts such as "synesthesia" and "immersive experiences" into our practice. Later on this year we shall also be inaugurating a new installation and performative format named "Aigua" -- focused on the sound of water.
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