2010
Solar still, electronics, solar panels, salt water
Oron Catts
The Autotroph is a solar powered kinetic sculpture and fountain. It ironically explores the problems and possibilities of technological solutions to human induced climate change. The Autotroph is an overly technological and playful exploration of the immense complexity of dealing with ecological issues. Any action postulated raises possibilities of good and harm to different aspects of the ecology, and this is without even considering the unknown unknowns (to quote Rumsfeld). The challenge of this project is to tell the stories of these complexities, but not to solve them.
The Autotroph consists of a floating solar still; in this exhibition the Autotroph floats in an artificial body of water, using the rays of real and artificial suns. The still deploys a computer controlled focussing mirror to achieve sufficient heat to evaporate water. The steam generated is condensed and flows to a Japanese style water feature back into the body of water.
The work is inspired by Lake Clifton, south of Perth, Western Australia. The lake and its inhabitants, including the Thrombolites, are under threat due to salinity, urban development pressures, global warming and land misuse. The Autotroph has been developed as part of SymbioticA’s Adaptation Project and was funded by The Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body and the Sydney Myer Fund. SymbioticA is The Centre of Excellence in Biological Arts, School of Anatomy and Human Biology, The University of Western Australia.
Artist bio:
Oron Catts
Director of SymbioticA- The Centre of Excellence in Biological Arts, School of Anatomy and Human Biology, The University of Western Australia (UWA). Visiting Professor of Design Interaction, Royal College of Arts, London.
Oron Catts is an artist, researcher and curator whose work with the Tissue Culture and Art Project (which he founded in 1996 with Ionat Zurr) exhibited and presented internationally. In 2000 he co-founded SymbioticA. Under Oron’s leadership, SymbioticA has gone on to win the Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica in Hybrid Art (2007) and became a Centre for Excellence in 2008.
Oron has been a researcher at UWA since 1996 and was a Research Fellow at the Tissue Engineering and Organ Fabrication Laboratory, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston 2000-2001. He worked with numerous other bio-medical laboratories around the world. In 2007 he was a visiting Scholar at the Department of Art and Art History, Stanford University.
