Alison Hiltner
It Is Yesterday, 2017
52 plastic polymer vessels filled with cyanobacteria (spirulina), sensor, pumps, relays, various hardware, steel and stainless steel, video projection, workstation with tanks, 24 x 100 x 20 feet
By breathing into the sensor, visitors create an exchange with the cyanobacteria, their carbon dioxide for the cyanobacteria's release of more oxygen in the form of more bubbling as an excited utterance. The aggregate CO2 data that is collected acts as a baseline for the aeration pumps allowing the sacks to "inhale" and "exhale", when the audience is not controlling the sacks with their breath.
Alison Hiltner
It Is Yesterday (detail), 2017
52 plastic polymer vessels filled with cyanobacteria (spirulina), sensor, pumps, relays, various hardware, steel and stainless steel, video projection, workstation with tanks, 24 x 100 x 20 feet
By breathing into the sensor, visitors create an exchange with the cyanobacteria, their carbon dioxide for the cyanobacteria's release of more oxygen in the form of more bubbling as an excited utterance. The aggregate CO2 data that is collected acts as a baseline for the aeration pumps allowing the sacks to "inhale" and "exhale", when the audience is not controlling the sacks with their breath.
Alison Hiltner
It Was Tomorrow, 2015
39 latex balloons filled with cyanobacteria (spirulina), sensor, pumps, relays, various hardware, steel and stainless steel, workstation with tanks, 312 x 444 x 120 in.
Alison Hiltner
Survival Tactics, 2015
silicone, resin, nylon, latex, vibration motors, microcontrollers, LED array and motor relays, 144 x 144 x 96 inches Survival Tactics is an interactive installation exploring how discoveries in plant communication further our growing understanding of conscious behavior in flora, specifically by how the root systems of plants can "talk" to each other through high frequency acoustic vibrations when under stress.