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re-media+ion2 MG F3_twitter.jpg — RE-MEDIA+ion 2

How microbes and plants repair the earth

How do human interventions affect the natural environment on a micro or macro level? And how does the adaptability of plants and microorganisms repair existing ecologies? In RE-MEDIA+ion 2, Maru Garcia explores the impact of human impacts on soil and water ecosystems and speculates on how hybrid technologies can undo this harm.

RE-MEDIA+ion 2 talks about the possibility of bioremediation of lead-contaminated soil. It is a series of works that explore the use of technology as an extension of our capacities, questioning its ability to connect or disconnect humans from the other organisms or their environment. RE-MEDIA+ion 2 is a combination of different concepts; “remediation” from the media theory proposed by Bolter and Grusin (which considers all media constantly borrowing from and refashioning other media), the process of cleaning environmental damage in environmental engineering, and the chemical processes that happen at the molecular level with ion interchanges.

Medium: Container, lead-contaminated soil, mustard plants, fishbone, mycorrhizae, cameras, microscope

Year: 2020

Video. Container, lead-contaminated soil, mustard plants, fishbone, mycorrhizae, cameras, microscope. ‘RE-MEDIA+ion 2’ talks about the possibility of bioremediation of lead-contaminated soil. This can be obtained by the use of a biosystem that includes humans, plants, fungi, and fish. Plants and fungi act as stabilizers absorbing and containing the lead in the root system, this avoids the propagation of the contaminant in the air. Fish contribute by providing a source of phosphorous (present in their bones), which transforms the lead in a non-harmful chemical structure and put it back to the ground. Humans act introducing this technology on the contaminated sites, reducing their car dependency (2) and re-thinking the systems that originated the contamination in the first place. During May 2020 a remediation experiment was performed and shared with the audience. Content coming from the cameras was gathered frequently, allowing us to be part of this transformation.

About the Artist

Maru García is a transdisciplinary artist and researcher working across art, science and the environment. Her use of media includes research, installations, performance, sculpture, and video, usually with the presence of some kind of organic matter to help understand the biological processes occurring in complex systems. Since 2017, Maru has collaborated with the Art-Sci Center and Counterforce Lab at UCLA. She has participated in conferences, solo and group exhibitions in Mexico, the US, and Spain. She was an artist in residence in the National Center of Genetic Resources in Mexico and received awards from Los Angeles Sustainability Collaborative, Clifton Webb Scholarship for the Arts, and Fundación Jumex.