For some years now French philosopher Paul Virilio has been proclaiming the loss of the here and now with unflagging vigour. He contrasts this with the overwhelming »global and always« and describes it with go-getting and overstated arguments as a new omnipotent power that deprives people of the kind of genuine experience that once existed. The post-modern philosopher, the chattering classes and enlightened pedagogues all agree that the new media are responsible for this development, which is sometimes also described as the alienation of humans from their own selves.
You might almost think that the exhibition »Ecomedia – ecological strategies in art today« had taken it upon itself to refute Virilio’s position. It is not so much that the works, on the whole conceived and exhibited with support from new media, benefit from their potential to be present globally at any time. Rather the artistic productions emphasise that each instance of critical reception of the new media occurs locally and also develops its effects at that level. This rewriting of the use of the media is also a more accurate description of what the curators were attempting to achieve in this exhibition – a cooperation between Basel’s Plug-In and Oldenburg’s Edith-Ruß-Haus für Medienkunst, Sabine Himmelsbach (Oldenburg), Karin Ohlenschläger (Madrid) and Yvonne Volkart (Zurich) – understanding ecology as communication with the environment. With this unusual take on a topic that is currently highly fashionable and urgent, the curators seek to circumvent various general stereotypes in circulation nowadays. Ecology is not just a political attitude but is instead an individual, constantly renegotiated response to the natural world surrounding us. Here the curators do not draw on a romantic conception of nature that sets the intact countryside against destructive cultivation.
In order not to fall into that trap, they have brought together artistic positions that present a diverse range of approaches to nature and the threats it currently faces. At first glance the projects that offer to solve ecological problems thanks to technological progress are the most surprising. These include for example »GenTerra« by Critical Art Ensemble & Beatrice da Costa,¹ who are interested in putting genetic engineering at the service of »biological environmental resource management«. This group of artists has produced an Internet presence, an exhibition installation and a video to open up debate on the fears associated with genetic engineering, all with a view to making the complexity of the discussion accessible to the general public. In this context the deconstruction of »transgenic myths« is just as much of an issue as the presentation of individual organisms and their potential for biodynamic processes. The Dutch architects group MVRDV takes a similarly relaxed approach to the question of consumption of meat, opting neither to reduce this, to the detriment of humans, nor to increase it, which would clearly mean animals would pay the price. In an accessible computer animation they design a gigantic »Pig Tower«, a high-rise for animal-friendly and environmentally-acceptable pig farming.² Piglets are born on the top floor and in the course of their lives make their way downwards floor by floor, until finally meeting their fate in the ground-floor abattoir. With just 44 towers like this, spread right across Holland, the country could maintain stable export figures, and so manage to respect economic and ecological concerns at one and the same time.
However, utopian blueprints alone will not save the world, as could also be deduced ex negativo from Virilio. To cite one of Virilio’s theses, on a relentlessly accelerating hunt for oneself, the ability to gain direct access to one’s own self slips out of humankind’s grasp, the race becomes infinite. It makes you feel like countering the argument with bags full of rubbish collected on the beach, or like organising a consultation with Australian artist Natalie Jeremijenko in order to help him regain an awareness of pollution as experienced day in, day out by millions of people in absolutely real terms. It is precisely this issue that forms the foundation for Jeremijenko’s project »Environmental Health Clinic«³, based on the changes to their environment noted by many people, who are also prepared to act to counteract these alterations and the negative consequences associated with them. For this project she deploys a raft made out of PET bottles, which she invites visitors to clamber onto in order to discuss their environmental fears. In her consultation the artist sets store by explaining to sufferers that there is a link between their headaches and the fact that certain plant species are becoming extinct. For Jeremijenko is convinced that this kind of explanation will make taking action »more tangible, easier to understand«. The bags full of rubbish are provided by Yonic, a group launched by two Swiss artists that now functions as an NGO, with local, interventionist projects always forming part of their wide-ranging activities.⁴ In »Lixomania«, for example, the collective targets comprehensive recycling of waste found on Brazilian beaches. Different though the two projects are, they do have something in common: conveying know-how about contexts and about real options for solutions.
In the »Right to Know Campaign«⁵ too, the Free Soil collective, which is also made up of activists from a range of different backgrounds, has addressed the fact that knowledge is essential but can neither be taken for granted nor indeed obtained easily, and has created not just an educational tool but also a catchy solution. The net-based, interactive installation aims to disclose the pathways food travels along and thus disclose the effort involved in production, which firms generally do not reveal due to strategic marketing considerations. The »MILKproject«⁶ by Esther Polak and Ieva Auzina prises the lid off our knowledge about the channels of food production by revealing the journeys that are de facto undertaken by individuals in the process. The artists equipped the protagonists, who were all involved in producing cheese, with GPS devices, allowing them to record the trips needed as part of the production chain. By documenting all this in photographs and videos, which can also be viewed on the website, this piece not only sheds light on abstract journeys but also ties this in to a subjective perspective through the tales recounted by the individuals involved.
Parallel to these works with a pragmatic thrust, the curators also succeeded in putting the symbolic-aesthetic aspects of the debate up for discussion thanks to their convincing selection. That holds true for Christoph Keller’s video installation, in which a cloud-studded sky is regularly torn out of its idyllic-looking calm by a plane thundering by, and also applies to Franz John’s space installation »Turing Tables«, which neatly conveys the earth’s constant quaking. In this piece recordings of data on the tremors are projected onto a darkened wall and at the same time transformed into random sounds, which constantly resound around the room. You find yourself sitting in the midst of the living planet and listening in fascination as it goes about its work. The vast quantity of information that simultaneously surrounds us and constantly changes references the dubious urge to measure and survey that is the font of this flood of data.
Ultimately this means that Virilio’s metaphor-heavy media theory concerning the alien nature of the world is not the only thing that is conveyed. Instead it would be more accurate to say that the exhibition refutes the fundamental assumptions of his considerations. The new media can also be allies when it comes to ecological questions, precisely when what is at stake is identifying and getting to grips with problems in the here and now.

 

Translated by Helen Ferguson

 

---