“The diverse sounds of the world are now in crisis. Our species is both an apogee of sonic creativity and the great destroyer of the world’s acoustic riches. Habitat destruction and human noise are erasing sonic diversity worldwide. Never in the history of Earth have sounds been so rich and varied. Never has this diversity been so threatened. We live amid riches and despoliation. ” – David George Haskell, Sounds Wild and Broken
Project
What does the sound mean to the crickets themselves? We know they are mating calls but we hardly pause to feel it from their perspective. I have been collecting different sound samples of crickets, and cicadas from parts of Pulau Ubin, a small island rich with mangroves off the shores of Singapore and from the hilly parts of the Western Ghats in Kerala. Both rich in biodiversity face different types of threats to their natural habitats. What messages are these insects relaying to each other in their own environment? What messages would they have for their fellow species that live in and around the mangroves of Batticaloa? What shifts in the Anthropocene when caught between a global conversation of insects from fragile ecosystems?
About
I am Service Designer and an Experimental media artist, from Kerala, India with fragments of San Francisco, Bangalore and Singapore. I let the context guide me to the form, medium or a technology. I am currently figuring out how to set up a small lab for artists, designers, and biologists in the Western Ghats in Kerala, South India.
Workshop
User Research and Paper Prototyping – Software Lab, Dreasmspace Academy, 21st July Thursday
BioPlastics and Kombucha SCOBY Leather – experiments in kitchen science.
Fermentation brings people together on a microbial level. Using pro-biotic projects to talk methods, flavour, art, and tech all at once in a hands-on and constructive manner lends itself to a shared understanding of the science and indigenous knowledge of the microbiome through storytelling.
I’ll be working with the DreamSpace team and folks from Sri Lanka to learn about their famed Ceylon Tea and the culture that surrounds it. With hands-on workshops on making Kombucha Starter, SCOBY, and vegan leather I hope to initiate an exchange of stories, recipes, practical ideas, and creative expression. This, together with cooking up bioplastics from rice-starch to address the constantly growing challenge of single-use plastics I hope to use kitchen science and informal education to link awareness, outreach, and solution prototyping through hands-on activity.
With the current economic crisis and a need for revenue from Tourism, I feel an influx of creative and collaborative international travelers offers a sign of positive support. With the Intention of building resilient systems, and helping to build resilience into systems I trust the open-sourced maker / hacker / DIY approach will inspire innovative progress through a “perfect storm” of challenges.
Mr & Mrs Mayor of Batticaloa visit the BioLabCris making Kombucha from the famed Sri Lankan Ceylon TeaDreamspace BioLab experiments with mycelium bricks and sustainable packaging from wasteMushrooms grown on liquid medium to form sheets – Cris and PramoShowcasing collaborative effortsArtists jump in and make the work make senseintentional unintentional textures from the cooking processLocally sourced cooking ingredients for bioplasticCooking up the bioplastic with food colouringcollaborative process formulating recipes to suit ingredients on handBioLab Reishi grown on liquid medium – Cris and PramoBioPlastics workshop with scoby leather and BioLab grown mycelium leather / bricks
Other projects: conversations with Dinasaurs and Dreamspace folks organically lead to many, many “side projects” some of which are documented here because, photos!
DinaCafe / Lounge w Tali and the Dinasaurs – DIY filters – Caffeinated contributions – Lounge / after-dark toddy Shenanigans (Oh My Gourd)
getting started: DIY filtersDinasaur international contributionspodcast! new episode every morning 🙂 Dinacafe birds – Origami by JayBrendi Coral Alphabet designDinaLounge shenanigans DinaLounge Repurposed audio ampMarc extracts Papain at DinaLoungs DInaCafe iteration – Mang & Tegan. Photo: Betty Sargeant
Papaya sap based alternative to CivetCat Coffee w Marc and the BioLab – see also a side-side-project using papain protease enzyme for vegan cheese w Ahac and BioLab
Papain rich sap just beneath the skin of the PapayaThe hotel owner generously helped us tap his plantsPapain sap – this needs an incubator for activation
ShroomMonitor w Cris, Pramo, Brian, and a hacked humidifier – Introducing Microcontrollers with Arduino and reverse engineering to emulate a touch sensor
fully hacked humidifier to respond to environment sensors via arduino
BikingHacks w Andy and DreamspaceCollective – Turning bicycles into horses using Coconuts and laser-cutting inspired by MontyPython and Trotify
need for steed – Trotify
Other other projects – DIY Incubator w BioLab – ButterChurn jar w 3D printed hand-crank inspired by visit to the museum – Caffeinator redux – cold brew coffee to keep caffeinated in spite of power cuts
