Factoryscape
Submission to the 2014 Land Art Generator Initiative Copenhagen design competition
Artist Team: Yasin Toparlar, Onur Can Tepe, Huseyin Penbeoglu
Artist Location: Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Energy Technologies: algae photobioreactors, boiler/steam turbine
Factoryscape removes existing solid land, generating space for algae photobioreactors—an urban-agriculture area that uses the sun, CO2, neighboring waste, and the forces of the sea to create biofuel from algae.
The algae farm is interlocked with a complex engine comprised of time-tested technologies that dewater, compress, transesterificate, and burn the algae, then produce steam out of its energy, and ultimately convert the steam into electricity. All these machines stand together on the site as a central objet d’art, reminding us of the accumulation of human inventions that are needed to create cycles of self-sufficiency. The complexity and the materiality of the installation create an image that we all are familiar with and of which we may be wrongly suspicious. Love it or hate it, the machine is the child of our collective, accumulative endeavor.
Contrary to our industrial past, this complex machine is not designed as an object of pure utility. Rather, it is recontextualized and dwarfed by a gigantic red surface that encapsulates it—creating a dense, cave-like environment. Within this grotto, the sounds from the machine are echoed, its connectivity is accentuated, and its aesthetics are exploited.
Visitors to this environment encounter the technologies in an entirely new manner that will cause them to reflect upon the relationship between man and machine.
