Pinar Yoldas: Ecosystem of Excess (2014)

In light of increasing amounts of plastic debris in the oceans, and inspired by the discovery of novel microorganisms colonizing the surface of ocean plastic debris and forming new ecosystems, artist and neuroscientist Pinar Yoldas created a number of speculative organisms for her installation – organisms that have adapted to their environment and developed special characteristics. It would seem the logical consequence of the environment conditions rapidly changing through human influence that future organisms would be able to perceive plastic (plasto-sensation), to digest plastic particles (plastivores), or remove pollutants from plastic (petronephros). The correlation between a creature’s pigmentation
and its diet is demonstrated by means of the bright array of feather colors, other animals could use the plastic to form air-filled outer skeletons, so-called exoskeletons. The novel forms of life imagined by the artist counter the disturbing human-made threat imposed by the debris in our oceans with a hopeful utopian design, offering us, with her “species of affluence,” a positive view of an imminently changing fauna.

Video Documentary:

ZKM | Institute for Visual Media

Camera: Rabea Rahmig, Jonas Pickel
Editing: Jonas Pickel