Crymlyn Wetland (Bog) Data

The latest version of the Crymlyn Bog live microbial activity monitor and data logging system is now running HERE. The interface provides a visualisation of electrogenic bacterial activity on two different locations in the Bonymaen area of Swansea, UK. One is in the Mount Zion Chapel garden in the Bonymaen housing estate, the other in the Crymlyn Bog, the largest largest area of lowland fen in Wales.

 

The Crymlyn Wetland (Bog) Data system was developed with Artstation. They explain HERE how the data visualisation will help their Better Bonymaen project: “This comparative display is designed to highlight the often-overlooked value of wetland ecosystems. By contrasting soil vitality between these two sites, the artwork invites public engagement and encourages local businesses and communities to recognise the ecological significance of undervalued green spaces.”

 

 

Following on past work with electrogenic bacteria and microbial fuel cells, this project makes visible the activity of soil bacteria in a citizen science approach. Early findings indicate that the bacterial population in the bog is much more active than that of the polluted garden in the housing estate.

 

For this latest instalment we replaced the copper-zinc electrodes with a graphite felt pair. Unlike zinc and copper that can exchange electrically charged particles, graphite felt is an electrically neutral material. This ensures that the voltage measured is not generated by the exchange of ions between two metals, but most likely by the build-up of bacterial activity near the electrodes.

Full details about the technical side of the project will follow shortly.

 

Carbon felt electrodes

 


Setting-up the electrodes and remote data transmission device in the Crymlyn Bog,  photos by Glenn Davidson, Artstation

 

Posts on the early stages of the project:

15-09-2024

27-02-2024

 

The electronics R+D for this project were partly funded by Cardiff School of Art and Design, Cardiff Metropolitan University

 

The Garden and the Hedge exhibition and programme

As mentioned in the last post, a Mud Machine was installed as part of The Garden and the Hedge exhibition and programme in Kubu Kulturhus, Björkboda Finland.

 

 

The programme largely focuses on soil and art, with a great range of artworks and activities. The works invite reflection on soil health, boundaries, resilience, and our responsibilities to the living land.

As well as the exhibition, the programme includes workshops, talks, performances and collaborations all the way to the end of August. I will be there during the closing week, running a workshop and a conversation. I am looking forward to checking out exciting new ecological artworks and exploring a part of rural Finland.

Full details on the exhibition artworks and programme, curated by the fantastic curator artist professor Teresa Dillon, are now available HERE.

 

Forest Square 1, Antti Laitinen

 

Radio Air Garden, Magz Hall

 

Removing Defenses, Kalle Hamm and Dzamil Kamanger

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The Garden and the Hedge
International Summer Exhibition & Programme
5.6.–31.8.2025

Kulturhus Björlkboda (KUBU)
Smedskullavägen 3
25860 Björkboda
Finland

Team:
Teresa Dillon
Curator The Garden and The Hedge and Artist Lead of Elemental Threads Programme.

Tuomo Tammenpää and Sari Kippillä
Executive producers, Kulturhus Björkboda

Participants:
@mrandybest
@laitinen_antti
@constanzadessain
@kalelhamam
dzamil_ka
@kasiamolga
@robinrimbaud
@paulgranjon
@knowlewestmc
@teemu_lehmusruusu
@mediengruppe_bitnik
@zabriskiebuchladen
@kaukolampi
@anttitolvi
@weiweiweiwear
@dusjagr
@ilveskorpi
@jussipuustjarvi
@ronjatammenpaa
@marjutnordb
@agryfp
@heymayahey
@jondroriuk
@uni_southampton_wsa

Mud Machine in Björkboda Finland

 

I should be in Finland right now, finishing the installation of a messy Mud Machine and getting ready for weekend workshops at Kubu KulturHus. Due to family circumstances, I could not travel.

 

Instead I prepared a box of kit and instructions so that the work could be installed by the crew. I was so lucky that curator Teresa Dillon successfully took the box through customs at Heathrow and that fellow creative technologist Marc Dusselier @dusjagr was on hand to put the bits together and ensure the splutterings of mud were of good standard! Thanks Mark and Teresa for your invaluable help :>))

 

The Mud Machine is part of a group exhibition and project called The Garden and the Hedge, (info about the programme below). Opening is today 5th June, pop in if you are in the Kimitoon area

 

 

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The Garden and The Hedge
International summer exhibition and program

 

The Garden and The Hedge is Kulturhus Björkboda’s (KUBU) inaugural international summer exhibition and programme, developed in partnership with the artist and researcher Teresa Dillon. Focusing on the garden and the hedge as interfaces and borderlines that shape our understanding of nature and our relationship to it, Kubu’s setting—a former school building nestled in the rural heart of the Kimitoön municipality on an island in the Archipelago Sea, Southwest Finland—provides a unique and rich context for exploring these themes.

 

With 35 artistic works, performances, and workshops, the exhibition explores soil health, care, and community. It invites reflection on visible and invisible boundaries, resilience, and how we listen and respond to the land beneath us. With the exhibition, through installations, performances, workshops, and our learning programming, emphasising the importance of soil care, its environmental significance, and the ways in which it connects to our larger ecological, sociocultural and political landscapes and soil stewardship.

==>

 

The Mud Machine in Kubu is supported by an International Opportunities Fund from Wales Arts International @waicymruwales and the Arts Council of Wales.

 

Singing Compost workshop

Just back from London where we hosted the Singing Compost workshop at the Centre for Art and Ecology, Goldsmiths University. The workshop was an occasion for discussions on soil related art practices and hands-on experimentation in soil microbiology inspired by a citizen-science approach.

 

 

Day 1 started with presentations by myself with an update on the Singing Compost artworks, Anno Colin on Ecocentric functional artworks, Harun Morrison on translation aspects of the Singing Compost, Ros Gray on the social life of soil, Urte Januseviciute on her work with deep underground organisms and dreams, Melissa Thompson on microscopy techniques for soil health monitoring, Louie Destouches on DIY soil microbiology. The afternoon was dedicated to soil bacteria culture and observation in the Centre’s DIY bio lab.

 

 

On Day 2 Jack Hannam gave us an historical update on UK soil census and current related issues, followed by continuation of lab activities. In the afternoon we discussed intentions and directions following on the original Singing Compost artwork, with a focus on funding sources for further events and publications.

 

 

The workshop, funded by the Learned Society of Wales with support from Cardiff School of Art and Design, was attended by members of the Centre for Art and Ecology centre and students from Goldsmiths’ Art and Ecology MA and Curation MA.

 

Electric Strawberries

New Beggarswell Allotments barry Wales

 

After several years on the waiting list we finally got an allotment not far from our house in Barry Wales. Based on experiences of climate action conversations with strangers that started from me doing slightly unusual activities in local public spaces, I am planning to connect with my new allotment community with an unusual allotment feature: a sonic raised bed that gives a voice to microbial soil life. Most soils are inhabited by some electrogenic bacteria, microbes that produce electrons as part of their metabolic processes. These very small electrical currents can be harvested and/or measured. One of the most common electrogenic bacterium is the shewanella one-idensis.

 

Electric Strawberries raised bed

 

The Electric Strawberries installation measures the electrical voltage produced by the microbes and generates an audio signal that varies according the measurement. The sonic raised bed is installed close to an access lane where I hope it will be a hook for engaging other allotment users or visitors in conversations about allotment growing know-how, microbial soil life, climate adaptation and other topics of interest. The experiment values an equal relation to non-human beings and a committed low-tech approach. The aim is to share knowledge, ideas and opinions as well as to strengthen links with the allotment community.

 

Tech

 

The Electric Strawberries installation is solar-powered and completely made of found, re-used and recycled parts. It is the latest instance of an ongoing investigation in electrogenic soil bacteria for art and citizen science that started from a collaboration with bio-engineer Michka Melo in 2017. Since then I have made several installations using the technology including the microbe-powered Mudbots (2018), the Singing Compost installation in collaboration with London-based artist Harun Morrison (2022-ongoing), the Garden Lab project with Knowle West Media Centre in Bristol and the Crymlyn Bog microbial voltage datalogging devices for the Better Bonymaen community art project in Swansea.

 

 

The Electric Strawberries were created during the Climate Adaptation for Creatives course run by Black Mountains College and the British Council in winter 2024-25

 

Allotment meets lab meets creative tech meets growing veg meets outsider art meets people meets microbiology meets citizen science

 

Allotment 2025

Currently working on the allotment in Barry, Wales.

Preparing the vegetable plots, and planning a growing sculpture with microbe electricity at the front as a conversation piece. The sculpture is homework for a Climate Adaption for Creatives online course from Black Mountains College and the British Council.

 

Research seminar in the woods

A recent experiment, research seminar in the woods. Instead of sitting in the institution, facing more screens at the end of a working day, we stood by a little fire that kept us warm while we talked about Eco-Anxiety and Little Joys, surrounded by trees.

 

We listened to a great speech by Douglas Hine about art and ecology and what is at the other end of despair.

We wrote our own anxiety on little pieces of paper that burnt away, sending meaningful particles of carbon dioxyde in the atmosphere.

The final roasting of marshmallows at dusk was cancelled due to roasting sticks being cut of privet, mildly poisonous to humans. We had a nice time nevertheless. Thank you to those who attended :>))

This seminar was delivered on 28-11-2024 as part of the research seminar series at Cardiff School of Art and Design

Art Research Garden talk

Paul Granjon and fellow artist Harun Morrison installed the first Singing Compost artwork in Goldsmiths University’s Art Research Garden in 2023. On Friday 27th September they will be in conversation as part of Goldsmiths’ Centre for Art and Ecology’s public launch. The event takes place from 2-5.30pm at the Art Research Garden, 41-43 Lewisham Way, London SE14 6QD (entrance via the garden gate on Parkfield Road). Full programme below.

 

Join us for an inspiring afternoon of talks and demonstrations with members of the Centre and guests! EventsBrite registration is now full, but contact Paul (paul [at] zprod [dot] org) if you’d like to attend.

 

The Singing Compost is an outdoor installation where the electrical activity of bacteria in the soil is measured and made tangible through sound. The second Singing Compost heap is installed in Cardiff School of Art and Design as part of the Sustainable Growing Futures garden.

 

Programme:

2.00-2.15pm – Welcome botanical drink

2.15-2.30pm – Anna Colin and Ros Gray, Opening Remarks

2.30-3.00pm – Harun Morrison and Paul Granjon, The Singing Compost

3.00-3.30pm – Lenka Vráblíková: Feminist Un/learning with Fungi

3.30-3.45 – Refreshments, with soil ice cream with rosehip syrup by Michael Guggenheim

3.45-4.30pm – John Little and Benny Hawksbee, Brownfield Sites for Ecological Complexity

4.30-5.00pm – Claire Baily, A Journey Through Material

5.00-5.30pm – Nirmal Puwar in conversation with Ros Gray, Planting Space Invaders

 

Singing Compost Heap 2, Cardiff School of Art and Design
Singing Compost Heap 2, Cardiff School of Art and Design

 

 

Crymlyn Bog datalogging

I mentioned a while ago that I was working with Artstation in the Crymlyn Bog, Swansea. We are logging electrical activity from bacteria in the soil from a couple of sites and beaming it up to the web using Lorawan networking kit.

 

Experiments going well, data visualisation web chart and bespoke data-logging circuit boards almost ready. I will post recipes as soon as all is working as it should.

 

Lora Receiver circuit

Data-logging receiver circuit in progress

 

Crymlyn Bog microbial voltage datalogging web page

Real time web visualisation of microbial voltage data

 

The electronics R+D for this project were partly funded by Cardiff School of Art and Design, Cardiff Metropolitan University

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