Waiting for the light

2018

Plants in Wardian cases connected to Internet via mobile broadband with public static IPs, growth lights via fiber optic side glow cable triggered by and plant rotation speed controlled by the activity of bots toward the specific plant

Waiting for the light is part of the series Subocean Botlights which departs from the fact that most of intercontinental communication relies heavily on the submarine fiber optic cables. This network carries threads of light as thin as tenth of human hair while being as existential to technological societies as the sun is for the plants. We are hanging by a thread while the artificial sun rays plunge through the oceans and light up our faces via bright screens.

The installation introduces baits into these networks and lures in threads of light from different parts of the globe. The Wardian cases function as miniature closed ecosystems and also as islands in the network between things – the Internet. Any device connected to this network becomes a target for automated processes – bots – whose motives are mostly non-transparent and therefore unknown. Each plant then becomes an object of interest to these robots whose communicative acts, streams of light, once passed the floors of oceans, are lit back into our environment as bursts of growth light, giving them an agenda they are unaware of.

The work was developed at WRO Art Center within the framework of EMAP / EMARE and co-funded by Creative Europe with additional production support from Tartu in Light festival and Outset Estonia.