“Pochva” is an instllation in which the electrical signals produced by microorganisms are shaping the
reconstructed “Memory Landscape” in real-time.
It starts with the soil delivered from the village of my grandparents and the soil sensor that I have
developed together with Annemerel Mol and David Striks of Wageningen University. Microorganisms in
the soil produce electrical charge, the “movements” of that charge are mesaured in real-time. The signal
measured in the soil is changing several parameters in the digital landscape (created in Unity and
developed by Ilya Doreanu).
The landscape was modeled based on my drawings from the memory of the Belarussian landscape. The
signal from the sensor affects the vegetation growth, sunlight and the rain. Some changes are fast, other
take more time.
The viewer experiences the landscape through 2 different viewpoints: from straigh away, when looking at
the screens in front of them and from above, when looking at the screens on the floor. That is achieved by
having 2 camera angles being rendered simultaneously in Unity and being shown on the respective
screens. In that way the viewer gets to explore the landscape in a physcial way that ordinary screens do
not allow.
The last part of the work involves a directional speaker with a recording of the artists voice narrating the
story. Due to the special technicality of the directional speaker the sound is mostly heard in one spot,
further allowing the visitor to physically engage in the unfolding of the story.