This project will create a community platform for artists working in the field of Anthropocenic Art and Design, providing a crowd/cloud data exchange network for information exchange, for the practice of micro-farming.

A range of modular kits have been developed to incorporate aquaculture (fish farming), hydroponics (water-based agriculture) and small scale farming.  The kits were developed to adapt to a range of bespoke geographic locations and ecological conditions, and are monitored by a custom sensing device. The sensing devices provide real time sensory data from each kit/location, which can be used to optimise agricultural conditions and as input for artistic production, such as live-coded audiovisual performance, bespoke installations and performance.

The data can also be used to compare geographical regions and climates, to track changes in conditions over time, for observations and storytelling, but also to facilitate artistic outputs. This allows for artists, plants and aquatic creatures, to communicate in new and more symbiotic and empathetic ways, merging natural systems, data systems and social exchange networks with art and design.

The project was conceived at the MIT Global Community Bio Summit in October 2018 and is supported by V2_ Lab for Unstable Media. It is inspired by the recent explosion of agricultural technologies and methods in the Netherlands such as saltwater farming and builds on current artistic discourse in relation to ecology, the Anthropocene and agency.