Variable currents is an installation that configures a living ecosystem in which bacteria, minerals, agua, insects and human agencies coexist in a continuous exchange of matter and energy. The work places bacterial metabolic processes in the foreground, making visible forms of non-human intelligence that have operated since the origins of early life on Earth.
Black ceramic pieces function as microbial fuel cells: on its surface, electroactive soil bacteria form biofilms capable of transforming organic matter into bioelectric activity. This energy, produced slowly and variably, feeds a central source whose water flow responds directly to bacterial metabolic activity. The expelled water is recirculated through a self-irrigation system that maintains optimal humidity conditions for the biopiles and maintains the balance of the whole. Other bacterial communities also intervene in this ecosystem, forming complex structures that reinforce the clay barrier through biomineralization processes.
Far from presenting technology as an instrument of control, 'Variable Currents' proposes biodesign as a relational and cultural practice, based on reciprocity and coexistence with the ecosystems we inhabit.
