999 years 13sqm (the future belongs to ghosts)
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Abstract:
As the original version of Living Architecture could not be exposed directly to the general public owing to the presence of genetically modified organisms, an alternative wild-type experience of a prototype wall system entitled 999 years 13sqm (the future belongs to ghosts), was developed for the “Is this tomorrow exhibition” at the Whitechapel Gallery, in collaboration with artist Cecile B Evans (Whitechapel Gallery, 2019) (Bevan, 2019). Taking the form of a future apartment space, the installation housed a screen-based system powered by natural anaerobic biofilms within an array of “living bricks.” The work created a context for the microbial infrastructure, envisaging a time beyond modernity as a vision of the future where humanity is facing new challenges posed by big data, bioengineering and climate change. Comprising a post human “household” powered by microbes, the space was inhabited by digital ghosts of the past, present and future, as the only traces of human life