A Two-day Quick & Earthly Prototyping Session with the Realities in Transition Artists in Residence (March 7-8, 2023)
“I do believe it to be true that the land here is demonstrably alive; that it does not exist solely, or even incidentally, as a stage for the enactment of human history; that it is [itself] a protagonist.”
Amitav Ghosh, The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable (p. 6). The University of Chicago Press. 2016.
My allotment garden in Rotterdam is not too far from the city centre, roughly three and a half kilometres from the V2 Lab for the Unstable Media. Situated on an unassuming plot of land between the railroad tracks, a recreational park, and the zoo, the SNV complex was established in 1938 for working-class city dwellers, mostly factory workers, to grow fruits and vegetables on what would have otherwise been unused land. However, over time, it has been whittled down to a third of its original size, and with urban sprawl, its future remains precarious. Its story is that of all urban green across the globe.
Seeing my plot as a demonstrably alive protagonist, this quick and earthly prototyping session with the Realities in Transition Artists engaged various technologies to explore narrative, visual and ecological densities. With the garden as a hub, the workshop sought forms of annotation through AI, AR, and VR.
The Realities in Transition Artists in Residence @ V2 were: Leon van Oldenborgh, Leo Scarin & Marlot Meyer, Hugo Pilate & Pedro Gil Farias, Studio Comrades (Edith Dingemans & Nicol Colga), Rebecca Merlic, Eva Iszoro, Calin Segal
A big thank you to all of the residents! It was a pleasure to host you in my garden and watch your wonderful brains at work. And thank you, Sieta & Boris, for all that you do at V2.