M-ARK (MICROBIOME ARK)
HUMAN MICROBIOME SATELLITE TO KICKSTART PANSPERMIA, 2017
BYRON RICH (CA)
This piece was created in collaboration with research institution CÚRAM, the Science Foundation Ireland Centre for Research in Medical Devices.
M-Ark is a project that tackles the prospect of a future in which humanity has rendered our planet inhospitable; a prospect made all the more possible with the United States pulling out of the Paris Agreement. M-Ark uses the philosophically compelling theory of panspermia, the idea that life on earth originated from microscopic life on asteroids that collided with earth, as its underpinning purpose. M-Ark is a small satellite that carries on board a human microbiome, capitalising on the theory that humanity evolved out of the necessity of its microbiota. Microbiota is the ecological community of commensal, symbiotic and pathogenic microorganisms found on all multicellular organisms including bacteria, archaea, protists, fungi and viruses. This small satellite will be designed to crash back down to earth at a point at which climate conditions have once again become favourable, kick-starting panspermia — the theory that life begins when asteroids collide with planets and infect them with new microorganisms.
BIO
Byron Rich is an artist, professor and lecturer born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. His work exploring speculative design, biology futures and tactical media has been widely shown and spoken about internationally. He pursued a degree in New Media at the University of Calgary before finding himself in Buffalo, New York where he obtained a Master of Fine Arts in Emerging Practices at the University at Buffalo. He now teaches Electronic Art and Intermedia at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania.