Warm Earth (2021)

An artificial ecosystem of plants, sun and servers.
A cultivation of symbiotic approach to life and the future.

The installation “Warm Earth” consists out of a self- built server powered by plants and solar energy, together they form an ecosystem. This server runs on plant and solar energy, speculating on the technology microbial fuel cell. This work invites to explore co-depending systems and understand the unreliably centred networks around us.

Can plants and network infrastructures live in symbioses in the form of a future ecosystem?

The server runs on plant and solar energy using the principle of a microbial fuel cell, a technology still in development. In return, the heat from the server sustains the tomato stems. Can network infrastructures exist together with the living qualities of the atmosphere? How can a parasitic relationship become symbiotic?

The installation was designed for an apocalyptic future, in which humanity can no longer depend on power stations and must instead turn to live plants as an alternative energy source. It is also a speculation on technology of turning plants into batteries. Going on a quest to investigate the relationship of human and vegetation when plants are turned into batteries. The only way to survive is to focus on de-growth. Slowing down the pace of human-living and follow the pace of plant-living.  *