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

 

 

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.

 

Data-logging receiver circuit in progress

 

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

#smiley

#hatchet

#clumsy

Today second visit to the Natural Law project in Bonymaen, Swansea UK. Artists collective Artstation have added a Arthub to a former batist Chapel. The chapel also hosts a food bank for this deprived area of Wales.

 

Artstation is running a range of activities – gardening, radio play, green dream house, community conversations about regeneration and climate action, all aiming for a Better Bonymaen. They are doing a great job of bringing a mix of residents, stakeholders, specialists, artists to the table. Check recent some of the conversations, for example on Climate Change in Food Bank Neighborhoods.

 

Down the hill from the estate is the Crymlyn Bog, one of the largest wetlands areas in Wales. Part of the Natural Law project is to improve the relationship between the community and the bog, which is often used for dumping unwanted objects.

 

 

Artstation invited me to run a couple of experiments with microbial fuel cells on the bog. We are planning to measure the electrical output (voltage) from several cells and to sonify the data, thus giving voice to some of the unseen life in the bog. I have made a solar-powered data logging box (bog box) that collects a voltage sample every 10 minutes.

 

Today we cycled down to the bog in Natural Law’s electric cargo bike and plugged the bog box in a quiet area. We will download the file in a few weeks time, observe variations and experiment with data-driven audio. We are also planning to transmit the data through a live link from the bog to the chapel.

 

We also talked to local primary school teachers about possibilities for their pupils to engage with the project, including microbial fuel cell workshops.

Photos by Glenn Davidson

We Are Ducked, video and sculpture, has gone to Florida for a winter break.
Exhibited in the Ritter Art Gallery in Florida Atlantic University as part of The Dreams of our Fathers: Environment, Technology & Urban Landscapes
“The exhibition gathers artists who use technology as a tool, a subject, or a metaphor in their exploration of our contemporary culture of consumption and growth while reviewing its impact on our landscape. From reflections on the petroleum industry to criticism of industrial processes and their effects on our environment to analyses of migration patterns and suburbia’s surreal but nostalgic plastic landscapes, these artists explore the human footprint and its legacy on our world.”
Until March 1st 2024

 

 

I recently enjoyed very much working on the Garden Lab Whispers Grow project in collaboration with a group of disabled creatives and Knowle West Media Centre (KWMC) in Bristol. Garden Lab Whispers Grow was one of 6 teams selected for Grounding Technologies, a pilot project from Bristol + Bath Creative R+D for exploring how creative technology can be used to support climate action.

 

 
“Nature relatedness has been found to be associated with reduced self-interest, more concern for the welfare of the environment, better physical and mental health, a meaningful life, and increased pro-environmental behaviour.”
Schultz 2001

 

Based in a local community allotment the group worked for 3 months on two families of experiments exploring how nature connectedness relates to climate action and creative technologies. The team co-designed a macrostick, a device enabling a wheelchair user to observe and take extreme close-up photographs at ground level. Another microscope was mounted on a remote-controlled snail-inspired vehicle. Creative technology is here applied for improving access to and visualisation of small scale natural elements.

 

The second strand of experiments were based on mud batteries, aka microbial fuel cells, a technology that I have worked with for some time (for example the Singing Compost collaboration with AHrun Morrison). The mud batteries capture the electrons emitted by certain electrogenic bacteria in the soil and produce a small electrical current as a result, that can be made tangible with light and sound. This technology is very useful for revealing an otherwise invisible activity by non-human beings in the soil, crucial for life on the planet as well as to start conversations about the importance of microbes, dirt, weeds, non-extractive energy generation, empathy with non-human beings.

 

We ran workshops for disabled creatives, for the after school club in the allotment and for an open day at KWMC.
The project finished with a showcase of the 6 Grounding Technologies teams at the Pervasive Media Studio, Watershed in Bristol. This was a very inspiring and dynamic presentation of inventive and current applications of creative tech to diverse aspects of climate action.

 

Garden Lab Whispers Grow team: Paul Granjon, Annali Grimes, Ruth Hennell, Oliver Woods, Daisy Hunter

 

Links:
• Check the videos for the other Grounding Tech projects, playlist here
• KWMC’s project page on Garden Lab Whispers Grow
• Grounding Technologies project page includes the project’s final report

• Video stream of the final Grounding Tech showcase (Garden Lab at 01:47:00)