critical infrastructure lab

The urgency of the ecological crisis is well documented and a growing field of environmental media scholars is drawing attention to the environmental harms of the internet, 5G, and generative AI. This experiment builds on the notion of biological computing to gain insight into what could be if we centre nature and not capital in the design of our infrastructures. With this, we take to heart Bill Reed’s (2007) call to action that to curb the ecological crisis we need to move beyond ‘doing things better’ and start by ‘doing better things’. The lab found that policymakers and tech companies present narrow sustainability efforts at best fall short of their promise and at worse intensify the extractive and exploitative models on which our economies are based. To develop approaches that ‘do better things’ we will experiment with powering the internet through mud batteries to design computational infrastructures that are non-extractive, restorative, and regenerative.

Making electricity with soil

We are collaborating with the artist Sunjoo Lee on the mud battery garden project. The project creatively explores the collaborative possibilities between natural ecosystems and digital infrastructure.

Mud batteries produce electricity by harnessing the metabolism of anaerobic bacteria living in wet soil, using a technology called Microbial Fuel Cells. Each container acts like a small battery, equipped with electrodes that capture electrons released by the bacteria. The garden’s plants and insects help feed the bacteria, allowing electricity to keep flowing as long as the ecosystem stays alive and thriving.

The project features a series of hands-on workshops. We build mud cells using soil and water, bury electrodes in the mud, and measure the amounts of electricity that they produce using multimeters. To explore if we can power alternative post-silicon and organic communication networks through mud batteries, organic materials, and e-waste.

Who knew dirt could be so current?!⚡