Eco-Mending

Left: Panels of a black and white photograph of the antartic are suspended from a tree by blue string, with rings in decreasing size corresponding to the size of the hole in the ozone layer. Right: Brightly colored hydrology map is stitched together with a photograph of an illegal oil well in Nigeria. The stitched line forms the data from a bioremediation project to reduce heavy metals in affected areas.
Eco-Mending juxtaposes old and new to tell a story of ecological regeneration. We find stories of human-mediated restoration in longitudinal data, and stitch modern data into imagery from the past, creating decorative wall and ceiling hangings. With perpetuality of data, comes the possibility of changing it. In this collection of art pieces, we pair past ecological destruction with present and future projections of data that highlight successful ecological reconstructions.
Abstract
Eco-Mending juxtaposes old and new to tell a story of ecological regeneration. We find stories of human-mediated restoration in longitudinal data, and stitch modern data in imagery from the past. We chose the subject of "reclamation" as an overarching characterization of a range of sub-topics we were drawn to, including ecological resilience, environmental stewardship, and natural regeneration. One story examines illegal oil drilling in the Port Harcourt region of Nigeria, which has resulted in significant groundwater pollution and dangerous offgassing. Researchers are pursuing approaches to bioremediation to absorb harmful substances like hydrocarbons and heavy metals through methods such as thermal treatment, dilution, and bioabsorption or breakdown with bacteria and fungi. The other story explores the repairing of the ozone hole in Antarctica. Consistent depletion of ozone, a natural gas that absorbs ultraviolet radiation, by manufactured ozone depleting substances (ODS) (e.g., halocarbons, chlorofluorocarbons) was pushed into the environmental spotlight in the 1980s. The joint effort of 198 nations via the Montreal Protocol and its subsequent amendments drastically curbed production of ODS, resulting in a steady increase in the average amount of ozone in the Earth's atmosphere since 2000. These stories come with a painful past, of human harms on the environment, but bring silver linings in the form of apologetic labors of love for our environment. We stitch the data traces of these stories into photographic memories of the affected environments.
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Khoury Vis Lab — Northeastern University
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