PIFcamp

HUMUS sapiens represents a compilation of soil explorations emerging from the networks of mikroBIOMIK, Hackteria, and Gasthaus – with the ambition to bring DIY (do-it-yourself) and DIWO (do-it-with-others) approaches as well as an open-source-based “hacker spirit” into soil ecology. Participants are invited to reflect on current scientific discourses and critical societal challenges through hands-on tinkering and curiosity-driven research.

Far more than just the dirt under our feet, soil is a truly complex and dynamic ecosystem. It is a constantly changing mix of minerals, living organisms, decaying organic matter, air, and water. It is the living skin of our planet, allowing new forms of life to come into being, incorporating the nutrients left there by organisms of the past.

Soil is bursting with life and can be vastly different from one square centimeter to the next. From plants, earthworms, insects, and fungi to invisible amoeba, nematodes, algae, and bacteria – each creature provides their own essential role in the soil ecosystem. The shared nature of the soil habitat manifests not only through the highly interconnected so-called “soil food web” – which is mainly driven by microbial metabolism – but also in regard to humans and their dependence on the productivity of edible plants. It is this dependency that motivates Homo sapiens to manipulate natural ecosystems, while at the same time failing to understand them.

Human impact on the soil, especially intensive agricultural practices (deforestation, overgrazing, use of agrochemicals, etc.) and urbanization, leads to compaction, loss of soil structure, nutrient degradation,and contamination – ultimately, the breaking down of these ecosystems and eroding of the soil to infertile desert. HUMUS sapiens aims to reexamine these problems from an ecosystem’s viewpoint and to support the paradigm shift from an anthropocentric ideology to a more biocentric philosophy of life.

This piece to be developed is a continuation of the previous light experiments and part of an ongoing visual exploration of Kaja Kisilak and Lea Bradašević.

The project is focused on exploring how light and shadow react on a moving surface, activated by a series of motorised points. The extension and retraction of elastic fabric transforms the topography of the “plane” and becomes a dynamic factor, onto which light, as a static component, adjusts. The movement is enabled by motors, pulling and releasing the surface, and doing so forms endless spatially dynamic patterns. By observing the surface effects we can study them and react accordingly. The intentional retainment of the control over the motors, hence the movement, makes the piece more in the performative realm, rather than a self-generative installation. Keeping the control is conscious and intentional. The experiments are going to be studied and developed over the week long PIFcamp and culminate on Saturday, when we are going to perform with Mitja Cerkvenik.

Our wild edible plant guru Dario Cortese will take care of our “real” detoxication! Are you ready?

Toxic!

What does it mean … Indeed? As far as it is not known there are no toxic plants in existence. Only some very powerful, which are one-sidedly labelled as »toxic«. Or the other way around – there is no single plant you would eat and die. Yes, the quantity is not mentioned. In some cases only a little bit than a small quantity is needed for lethal result. Because of powerful pharmacological action in human body most of the so-called toxic plants have – used in small quantities – medicinal and other qualities. Natural toxins in general heighten the body’s resistance to toxins, contradictory as it may seem. All the way through human history they were and are ingested regularly to acquire more power, be it for everyday life or for special purposes.
So there is no need to detox indeed, only to »detox« the attitude toward the »toxic plants«. And mushrooms, too, as there exists some data that otherwise very poisonous Death Cap, Amanita phalloides, was used (smoked) ritually in the region of Mariovo, southern Macedonia, in pre-Roman times.

Hack your own borreliosis

As each borreliosis (Lyme Borreliosis) infecton is each infected person’s own homework it is very simple for self treatment. Indeed self medication is the only way to run the marathon of healing, or rather transforming the infection (and, good news, also co-infections as ehrlichiosis, bartoneliosis and babesiosis) when official medication fails. And it fails very often as the Borrelia bacteria (there are several species, B. burgdorferi being the most common and known) is very intelligent being, performing quite some miracles in the host’s body. And mind. A story yet to be told by future borreliosis-literate medical doctors. But there is no need to wait for them as you can be your own.

This project teaser is brought to you by Bernhard Rasinger!

We are terraforming the planet. 

If you think about terraforming it always brings up a feelingof making an inhabitable space (e.g. Mars) habitable. On our home planet we are doing quite the opposite.

Since harnessing the control over fire and the discovery of the wheel mankind is fascinated with the exploration of technology. Today we are globally connected and a vast number of people are dependent on the electric power grid in order to survive. At times we think technology will solve our problems, only to forget that its‘ use always comes with a consequences. The solution to our biggest problem, the change of the climate, is probably not a technological one. 

The task of decarbonisation of the atmosphere is best left to trees. They are the real professionals. We just have to let them do their thing.

Marina Miranda invites you to explore and amplify sounds, objects and data!

Some of my interests revolve around exploring very small parts and details from the world around me. I like working with contact microphones and hydrophones, granular synthesis, radio frequencies, the most basic systems of computation and digital logic, CMOS chips, DIY electronics, microscopes, analog circuits, field recordings etc. to bring the unseen reality around me into the field of perception and create biographical pieces about my day to day life. During my stay at the camp I would like to work on creating a musical and visual diary by using some of these techniques and instruments to explore and amplify sounds, objects and data. I would also like to share some of my work and techniques with others and build some simple musical machines to demonstrate the principles of binary and digital logic. And finally, I would like to invite other camp goers to explore our surroundings and learn about the tiny things that make up our world.

ICTUSCORDIS is a new-media performance / audiovisual laboratory with the main subject being the artist’s heart. This project by Januš Aleš Luznar explores the interaction between art and psychology, between the physical and mental organism. Although they speak different languages that are difficult to translate, the artist searches for their coincidental and non conclusive parallels through which they communicate. In the first version of the ICTUSCORDIS “Heart Modulations”, which was developed and implemented in 2018 with the help of PIFcamp, the author’s heart is at the forefront of research. Januš Aleš Luznar explores the use of the Biofeedback method as an inspiration by manipulating the arousal, intensity and pace of his heart with various audio modulations. No pre-recorded sounds or samples are used to perform. 

ICTUSCORDIS – “Hearts Dialogue” is a new audiovisual contemporary dance performance based on the heartbeat of two performers in real time. With live music from the heart of the musician Januš Aleš Luznar and the choreography of contemporary dancer by Hungarian dancer Gyula Cserepes.

Sound will be captured by a customized piezo microphone with high sensitivity. The microphone will then be connected to the mixing table and the modulation effects that manipulate the sound of the heart into rhythmic and harmonic electronic music. The sound part of the project will be connected to the analogue audio signal. On the dancer, sensors of the movement “smart fabrics”, motion sensors and the heart rate sensor will be used, which Januš Aleš Luznar will develop at this year’s PIFcamp. The musical part of the performance will respond to the heart of the musician, while the visual content will be controlled with the heart and movement of the dancer. Visualizations and mystical abstract landscapes that will be used for performance will be carefully selected according to past experiences. The interaction of two artistic heartbeats will create a speculatively consistent synchronized mix of sound, visualization and dance.

“ICTUSCORDIS – Hearts Dialog” is an invitation to the audience into a dedicated artistic space and spiritual intimacy, to raise awareness through listening and observing. Finding yourself in the heart of another is to identify the connection between all.

“The initial material source of this project are app. 7000 negatives on 35mm film. When digitalised the search for the algorithm that would systematise the archive begins. The final outcome is  therefore analogue again; booklets of photographs that can lead you to the source material. In the background of the project there is a thought about the social power that lays behind the ownership of the archive, especially when archive becomes institutionalised.”

The piece is not done, yet the idea is clear: the cast in the form of a plastic cup: touchable, takeable, breakable. 
It will just burst in your hands if one grabs too hard. 

The piece should be read as a critic of the consumeristic world, the world of things and objects, that are not to be meant to last long. As an art piece, I imagine a table filled with this filigrain plastic cups made by sand; the audience is allowed to touch and take them, but then the pieces will just break in pieces and fall into the sand. 

I tested already different moulding and casting processes but could still not reach the wished results. I need to refine my research and material testing with the moulding and the casting process, as well as with the mould release agent. A part of this research will be done for sure before joining the PIFcamp, but I would like to create the final piece on site. Might certain material aspects (or local materials and productions ways) as well as exchange with other artists could help me in order to find the right production process.

Food is as migratory as the people who eat it. “Traditional” cuisine is not always comprised of ingredients local to the region. The modern pizza is Italian in origin, but tomatoes came from the Aztecs. American hot dogs came from German style wieners, but the act of stuffing ground meat into casings goes all the way back to the ancient Sumerians and Chinese. This contradictory notion of foreign ingredients in traditional local cuisine call into question the origin stories of “authentic”, regional food, and what defines authenticity.

“Home” Cooked is a physical manifestation of how distinct cultural traditions have been founded upon a longstanding history of global exchange and migration. It looks at how a foreign ingredient makes its way into a new country and integrates into a region’s existing food vocabulary. At the PIFcamp, we will research the origin stories of several key dishes from the region, design and test a game that tests player associations with Slovenian ingredients. Our goal is to create new associations by serving different methods of preparing the same food from other countries.

At its core, our game opens up a dialogue on how food acts as an ambassador between regions, highlighting distinct flavors different places bring despite using the same ingredients. The game is merely lubrication for the real art of it all, exchanges between completely different people bonding over love of something so integral to human experience – good food.