An event for people to drink tea and consider what we can learn from the billions of soil organisms who co-create the healthy conditions for plants to grow in – and in turn, nourish us. Tea is a plant, after all. After drinking, we fed our used teabags and paper cups back into the wormbin ecosystem. While it might seem strange to have tea with worms, springtails, mites, and billions of microscopic organisms, we are always having tea with them.

We discussed what we can learn from worm bin ecosystems. For instance, they show us the undigestable microplastics hidden in teabags – and they show us how our food and paper waste can be turned into valuable nutrients for gardens and indoor plants. Worm composting does not create unpleasant odors and does not produce methane, a greenhouse gas which is generated by food waste that rots in landfills.

For this event, we drank loose-leaf tea scooped into strainers or into small paper pouches. I’ve learned from the worms that some commercial tea bags are made of plastic, even those that really look like paper. Worms can’t eat it, soil doesn’t need it, and studies show that plants take microplastics up into their bodies. This is a problem for them and for animals like us, who eat plants.

Thousands of composting worms and arthropods and billions of microbes live inside this worm-shaped wagon. They are making rich compost from waste generated from my home, such as cardboard, wilted lettuce, banana peels, apple cores, dead plants, tea bags and used coffee grounds. This composting ecosystem includes a colony of red-wiggler worms (Eisenia Fetida), who have lived with me for thirty years. We have shared many meals. The fertilizer they make is fed to my houseplants, herbs, tomato plants, and lettuces. To publicly celebrate soil critters, I have mobilized my worm bin onto a wagon. Worms do their business in the dark; they do not announce to us that they offer solutions to climate change and they do not speak about their important role in circulating nutrients and healthy microbes in soils. I’m sharing this on their behalf because I hope other households will develop regenerative relationships with composting worms. Sharing nutrients with household worm ecosystem is a slow, steady way to reconnect one’s sense of self within the larger web of life.

The recycling of old into new is also how I approached making Mobile Soil Maker, this “Worm Wagon” ecosystem sculpture. I made it from the remnants of an old artwork, rather than using all new materials. You can see the original installation from 2004, Intraterrestrial Soundings.

The public can visit the gallery at 1740 Broadway St. Tuesday through Friday from 11AM to 5PM, and Saturdays from 1PM to 5PM. August 6 – September 14, 2021. Or listen to our interview together.

In Tiahue Tocha (let’s go home) Colectivo Rasquache continues its project of engaging with transborder reality through material and social invention, this time with particular attention to brickmaking as a homage and timeline of Coapan. As construction methods in Mexico have evolved, brick-making, which, along with farming, was the primary occupation of many from Coapan who have since migrated to the US, gave way to cement block. Cement blocks are not made from local materials unlike red bricks or adobe bricks. For our installation at Visible Records, the red clay of Virginia provides fresh material for old ways of making as we ask:

• What new things are built when we are apart?  
• What opportunities arise out of absence or restriction? 
• What possibilities might make themselves known that otherwise would never have been?
• How do we share them?
• What happens when nostalgia gives way to futurity?

The workshop I did with Ken Rinaldo was called “Unmaking with Worms”. Participants built mini sculptures and placed them into a baby bassinet where composting worms live. Our building materials were food and paper waste; egg cartons and discarded vegetables sourced from the compost pile of a nearby community garden. During the workshop, we explored how worm ecosystems “unmake” waste matter and “remake” it into fertile compost.

During the run of the exhibition, a time-lapse camera is capturing the transformation of the sculptures. Looking forward to seeing the worms work!

Can we break away from current agricultural practices which are intimately connected to desertification, water and soil pollution, antibiotic resistance, climate change and social and economic inequalities? In a two-hour discussion we are interested in considering a sustainable, multispecies perspective to farming, which could start in the soil and progress through thinking about the multiple ways we can consider food. Aquaponics, vertical farming, worms, soldier flies, and permaculture offer real solutions, where food is grown while respecting living beings, and the intertwined ecologies that support them.Humane food can be grown in urban or rural communities, though the soil is critical. How can we learn and care about living beings we cannot quickly know or see? What is care like in practice? We are also interested in exploring the concept of “citizen eco-artist” as so much of what we do resides in the spaces between actual science, sustainable practice and speculative fiction.

• This international talk with be livestreamed on youtube and recorded for later viewing.
  
• A coproduction of the Network for Prototyping the Future and Art Laboratory Berlin

In his podcast, Voices of Excellence, he asked me many great questions about my art and teaching practices. You’ll hear me talking about my recent work with virtual reality, augmented reality and about how living with worms has influenced me. We also discuss interdisciplinary teaching, creativity, eco art, bio art, art & science and art & technology.

My interview is on Soundcloud and on Apple iTunes.

And you can listen to all of the Voices of Excellence interviews on this regular podcast on Soundcloud or iTunes. They focus on the innovative work being done by faculty and staff in the College of Arts and Sciences at the Ohio State University.

We are creating Machine Garden, a system sculpture in which plants, worms, microbes, and machines will coexist in a state of symbiotic intertwining. Food waste will be transformed into fertilizer in a worm hive composter, which provides connections to the plants via a highway of interconnected tubes that allow worm migration throughout.

We are building this work as 2017 Researchers-in-residence at the innovative Media, Research and Commercialization Center. This is an incredible facility outfitted with a variety of tools and equipment, including a full shop, 3D printers and 3D scanner, computer-controlled machine tools, a cutting and engraving laser, plastic vacuum former, large format printers, a range of design and production software, electronics workbenches, video and still cameras, audio recording and mixing equipment, and a variety of tools for supporting interactive environments and installations.

Abstract: Materialism is occupying the forefront of intellection discourse in fields as diverse as anthropology, architecture, social science, cultural theory, feminist studies, philosophy, psychology, and theology. These disciplines are both defining and redefining humanity’s interactions with the materials of the planet. Their shared impulse can be traced to mounting evidence that humanity’s unprecedented abilities to manipulate substances, from nanoparticles to global weather, are undermining Earth’s ability to support diverse forms of life. The following text contributes to this urgent discourse by applying these considerations to individual behaviors. In order to facilitate personal scrutiny of the environmental consequences of one’s material behaviors, it identifies seven archetypes of material interaction: pet, sacred object, hazard, merchandise, specimen, resource, and sensual stimulus. In this essay, each archetype is presented from three vantage points. First, patterns of human engagement with each archetype and their environmental consequences are examined. Second, patterns of disposing materials that are no longer desired or viable are explored. Third, artists’ interpretations of these material patterns are presented. Each artwork utilizes dirt as its medium and theme to facilitate comparing and contrasting archetypes. Artists not only manifest each archetype, they warn against objectionable human/material relationships and demonstrate beneficial alternatives.

Article excerpt: “Youngs then inserted a communication channel between these divergent territories by installing an infrared camera inside the worm bag. The images were then transmitted to an LCD screen that was inserted into the top of the table, enabling Youngs to observe the worms’ virtuoso waste-disposal performances as they ate together. A second repulsion-reducing strategy involved adding an active care-giving regimen to the diner’s passive viewing of images on an LCD screen. Youngs accomplished this by inserting a cavity into the top of the table that functioned as a waste-disposal receptacle for pizza crusts, apple cores, and used tea bags. All her leftovers immediately provided the menu for the worms’ next meal. This built-in receptacle converted a tedious chore of waste management into the pleasurable act of feeding a pet.”

…read in full here.

Hey NYC, come out to the Creative Climate Awards Show closing party and take a worm selfie pic in my custom photo booth for live worms and humans. Your pretty #WormSelfie picture will appear on Flickr and Twitter; broadcasting your worm love out to the internet. I’ll also be showing 2 Worm Cozies – everyday items that provide camouflage for mini worm composters in your home. Easy to make, easy to enjoy ecosystem, with no odors. Come see for yourself. Thursday, Oct 27, 2016 6:30pm – 8:30pm.

Sounds like a fun party too:

Join us as we close this inspiring month-long exhibit in true October style – with a Halloween themed celebration! We will have prizes for the most innovative climate costumes, free wine, and great tunes.  Show up in your best costume and experience our best exhibit yet, hang out with our artists, see live performances from Amy Youngs and Rachel Frank, and see who gets this year’s Creative Climate Awards $2,000 grand prize. Free registration and more info here.

The Creative Climate Awards are an annual series of events from the Human Impacts Institute that showcase artists creating climate-inspired, public works and actions. In an effort to inspire us to think more critically about our actions and their impacts, the Creative Climate Awards program uses the arts and creativity to share knowledge, broaden the climate conversation, educate, and incite action.

STEAM Factory Showcase: Thursday, September 8, 2016 – 6:00pm to 8:00pm
Strongwater Food & Spirits: 401 West Town Street, Columbus, OH 43215

Join us for an evening featuring a diverse array of STEAM Factory faculty members from a wide variety of disciplines presenting engaging and interactive research demonstrations, presentations and micro-lectures. The evening will provide a wonderful and informal opportunity for alumni and friends to interact with STEAM Factory members located in Franklinton, the burgeoning new Columbus district of arts, creativity and innovation! …more info