According to the global assessment on pollinators produced by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) in 2016, seventy-five percent of our main food crops and nearly ninety percent of wild flowering plants depend to some extent on animal pollination for their reproduction. Beyond food, pollinators also contribute directly to the reproduction of plants used as medicines, biofuels, fibres like cotton and linen, and construction materials.

Each metronome has a light emitting rod that will be moving and pulsating in different frequencies like a normal music metronome. All metronomes can be controlled from a central microcontroller. At the begging all metronomes stand without motion. Then the data from the global temperature rise per year will start to feed the installation and one by one the metronomes will start to operate (moving, emitting light and ticking). As the global temperature will rise, the metronomes will be oscillating faster in higher frequencies. At some random point all metronomes will stop immediately.

During the Summer School many panels and debates focused on creating new narratives, imaginaries, and metaphors about how to reconnect with nature from another perspective. But one of the major difficulties encountered is how to move forward and to find the point(s) of de-centring our anthropocentric positioning. In this respect, Saskia Vermeylen’s presentation during the Nature and Law keynote was very inspiring. The ensuing conversations we had with her, during and after the Summer School, encouraged us to work in this direction. 

The actual artwork will be determined and developed after a site has or sites have been determined in consultation with JRC experts. 

The work will be interpretive, inspired by a direct, personal response to a site or sites. I never start a project assuming an outcome. I find my direction from the site itself and through the re-experiencing of the fieldwork in the studio. 

See Appendix A for examples of previous artwork created using similar research methodology. 

Proposed materials might include, but are not limited to:

The main piece is an installation where viewers are immersed in a hypnotic change of the terrestrial surface: their perception of time is altered in relation to the temporal complexity of the ground. The project intends to create an experience that embeds the audience in planetary cycles and natural rhythms that usually remain invisible as they exceed human perception. Visitors experience the processes taking place in a temporally accelerated way.

• Materials: The physical materials used to build the entire installation space will include recycled sheet plastic collected from the community (JRC campus and the town of Ispra). The plastic will be ironed together to make large plastic sheets. These sheets will be used to build the plastic inflatable structure (the interior of which will become the experienced installation space). The scale and design of the installation space will be dependent on the amount of community plastic consumption and collaboration. 

Life in our times entails an apparent dissolution of the proper separation of things; nature - culture, human - nonhuman, life - nonlife, existing - non existing. What emerges in this crisis of the natural is an uncanny eeriness; sunbathing reminds us of global warming, breathing city air of pollution, drinking water of microplastics and toxins. Unseen anthropogenic entities are haunting our experience. The classical image of the unseen, uncanny haunter are the ghosts, ghouls, spirits, and specters.

This is a unique opportunity to bridge the centre and the periphery via interdisciplinary collaboration with researchers at JRC, to consider question such as: 

COMPOS[T]ING¹ involves an exploration of building materials, with an emphasis on local, indigenous, and undervalued knowledge, and re-usability and adjustability as elements of adapting to our changing conditions. The project is an attempt to challenge some of the assumptions underlying the contemporary production of our habitations from a material and social/cultural perspective and to rethink the construction industry in the belief that there are better alternatives.

How to imagine a politics of the non-human? If politics is a human practice, then the question shifts to how we, as humans, can escape the narrow definition of the human self in the practice of policy making. As discussed in the scientific background of the proposal, there are methods to integrate values and identities into policy making. I want to explore these methods scientifically and performatively for non-human values and identities.