Destabilised Common Grounds

Destabilised Common Grounds

Destabilised Common Grounds

The need for rewilding and restoring biodiversity [Pörtner, 2021] and the drive to use artificial intelligence as an agent in climate action [CCAI, 2019] questions humans’ position as dominators of the biosphere. This project investigates the potential, complexities and ethics of new human-technology-nature relationships and hierarchy shifts needed to reach the net-zero goals.

Destabilised Common Grounds is a set of performative installations and workshops revealing the wisdom of moss colonies. It invites a deep engagement with a fascinating community that we tend to overlook - mosses. Mosses are uncompetitive, slow and extremely resilient. Moss can survive long stressed conditions in drought or freeze due to its colony structure and sensitivity to environmental changes. Mosses grow in colonies of independent strands. The density of the colony supports the individuals and protects them. The colony stabilises the soil and set conditions for other plants to grow and prosper. It is fascinating to compare moss and its behaviour to capitalistic values. In some aspects, moss is an antithesis - it grows very slowly, and it is uncompetitive. Through the moss, we can explore the qualities of a community, Will it make us see our communities differently?

In this project, audiences are invited to influence the moss’s climate and see the impact of their actions on the moss’s condition in real-time through two large projections: Through a macro-lens view, showing the movement of the strands, and another through a red filter that emphasises the dry and vulnerable areas. The participants’ interventions act as a metaphor and as a reflective tool to human and non-human relationships.

During the workshop, a moss rug acts as a board game. Each player gets a territory. Their goal is to keep it the greenest and most prosperous area. During the game, the players influence the climate of the moss using water spray, hot air and manipulating the rug’s topography. As the game progresses, they would discover how their actions affect the moss’s condition. Would they try to change the course of the game and collaborate to try and balance the moss rug?

This interdisciplinary venture draws from four main fields of knowledge: Cultural Geography and Sociology as the theoretical context, and Botany and Creative Computation as its practice and material context. The cross between these four fields of knowledge is disseminated through the aesthetics, conceptual and experiential manner of the Destabilised Common Grounds installation, where audiences act as researchers and their actions and interpretations are an integral part of the work - exploring the role of human intervention in the biosphere. My stake in this venture is to create the setting and conditions for humans, machines and plants to interact. To build this microcosmos and then explore and document it. To instigate new encounters and reveal questions.

How might the experiential play in the moss feedback installation be a catalyst for the transformation needed in our cultural systems? This project sees the vital link between society and ecology, aiming to promote discussion, activism, and governance change models while exposing the tensions between competition and ecological balance.

The need for rewilding and restoring biodiversity [Pörtner, 2021] and the drive to use artificial intelligence as an agent in climate action [CCAI, 2019] questions humans’ position as dominators of the biosphere. This project investigates the potential, complexities and ethics of new human-technology-nature relationships and hierarchy shifts needed to reach the net-zero goals.

Destabilised Common Grounds is a set of performative installations and workshops revealing the wisdom of moss colonies. It invites a deep engagement with a fascinating community that we tend to overlook - mosses. Mosses are uncompetitive, slow and extremely resilient. Moss can survive long stressed conditions in drought or freeze due to its colony structure and sensitivity to environmental changes. Mosses grow in colonies of independent strands. The density of the colony supports the individuals and protects them. The colony stabilises the soil and set conditions for other plants to grow and prosper. It is fascinating to compare moss and its behaviour to capitalistic values. In some aspects, moss is an antithesis - it grows very slowly, and it is uncompetitive. Through the moss, we can explore the qualities of a community, Will it make us see our communities differently?

In this project, audiences are invited to influence the moss’s climate and see the impact of their actions on the moss’s condition in real-time through two large projections: Through a macro-lens view, showing the movement of the strands, and another through a red filter that emphasises the dry and vulnerable areas. The participants’ interventions act as a metaphor and as a reflective tool to human and non-human relationships.

During the workshop, a moss rug acts as a board game. Each player gets a territory. Their goal is to keep it the greenest and most prosperous area. During the game, the players influence the climate of the moss using water spray, hot air and manipulating the rug’s topography. As the game progresses, they would discover how their actions affect the moss’s condition. Would they try to change the course of the game and collaborate to try and balance the moss rug?

This interdisciplinary venture draws from four main fields of knowledge: Cultural Geography and Sociology as the theoretical context, and Botany and Creative Computation as its practice and material context. The cross between these four fields of knowledge is disseminated through the aesthetics, conceptual and experiential manner of the Destabilised Common Grounds installation, where audiences act as researchers and their actions and interpretations are an integral part of the work - exploring the role of human intervention in the biosphere. My stake in this venture is to create the setting and conditions for humans, machines and plants to interact. To build this microcosmos and then explore and document it. To instigate new encounters and reveal questions.

How might the experiential play in the moss feedback installation be a catalyst for the transformation needed in our cultural systems? This project sees the vital link between society and ecology, aiming to promote discussion, activism, and governance change models while exposing the tensions between competition and ecological balance.

Participatory installation, moss colonies on a rug, water, hot air, microscope, monitor and live projections, Installation 90x110x100 cm + Projections 200x140 cm

Participatory installation, moss colonies on a rug, water, hot air, microscope, monitor and live projections, Installation 90x110x100 cm + Projections 200x140 cm

https://2021.rca.ac.uk/students/nirit-binyamini-ben-meir

https://niritbin.com , https://www.instagram.com/niritbin/

Theme: ”Democratic experiment(s)”
In my project Destabilised Common Grounds I aim to promote kinship and reciprocity by creating interaction and a conversation between humans, moss colonies and biospheric elements. This is a democratic experiment inquiring how the notion of the entities we share our world with will lead us to better governance models.
In Destabilised Common Grounds I set the conditions to enable humans to witness how their actions impact microclimates, how entities such as moss are affected and how they respond to the changing climate around them. Through touch, smell and visuals, humans can feel and observe the transforming landscape of moss colonies. Using technological tools, and game methodologies, I aim to make the micro world of moss more accessible to humans and create an experience that both educate about reciprocity and evoke emotions of empathy. The work is designed to engage diverse audiences of different ages and class ranges. The installation invites a playful and experiential activity both as an experience for individuals or as a workshop for groups.
I aim to create a transformation in perception through the work, I relate to the moss installation both as a reflection process on human society and power structures and as an observation window on the range of other-than-human stakeholders that we live with and tend to overlook.
There is hope that we can learn from other beings such as moss about resilience, collaboration, sustainability, and question our paradigms about competition, excessive growth and consumption. Destabilised Common Grounds aims to catalyse this conversation with all entities.