It is 2021 and climate change is high on the agenda. But where to start? For decades we humans prioritized ourselves above all the other living things we share the earth with. We are able to build and adjust nature to our likings. We use technology to control nature’s forces. These adjustments are not without a response or consequences. This phase in human history in which we can see and measure the changes going on in the earth’s ecosystems due to our human influence is called the ‘Anthropocene’. The problem as a result of human created dominance is not simply climate change. Our created dominance also threatens our own existence. Within this blog we are going to introduce you to the concept ‘Symbiocence’, you might have seen it on our other socials and within our projects. The concept itself was created by Glenn Albrecht, who before retiring and working as an environmental philosopher worked as professor of sustainability at the Murduch university in western Australia. Just like BioArt Laboratories Albrechts is exploring the idea of new sustainability, a way of living together and ways to change our behavior towards the earth. This blog will introduce you to the concepts of our new futures.

Exiting the Anthropocene

According to Glenn Albrecht it is important that we rapidly exit this Anthropocene as it is built on a flawed foundation filled with waves of grief, dread, mourning and melancholia. Caused by the manner in which we approached and treated the world around us. Polluting the understanding of concepts such as sustainability and sustainable development. The big questions with these concepts have been: what are we developing? What are we sustaining? Placing those concepts into an unspecified frame leaves us to wonder if these concepts only exist to keep themselves alive. 

How do we overcome this phase? And equally as important: What is next? 

In order to leave behind the concepts that we corrupted we need new popular politics and cultures to help us. We need them to present us with new visions and ideas of different futures and new conceptual development. We need to be able to show and connect with new possible futures in which we are living together, rather than surviving an apocalyptic world. Exactly that is the reason BioArt Laboratories came to be. 

We are creating a new foundation. A foundation based on positive acts of creation. This positivity is found within the symbiosis. The scientific meaning of the word “symbiosis” implies living together for mutual benefit. This way of living together should form the core aspect of not only the phase in time but also in ecological thinking. Underlined by the idea that symbiosis affirms the interconnectedness of life and all living things, Albrecht sees this as the new phase for humanity and planet earth. 

How to interconnect

We can rethink the way in which we use technology, in order to find new ways of working and living together. In 2018 Bioart Laboratories switched the roles, recreating an experiment where trees functioned as antennas. The so-called Tree-antennas are a good example of  symbiosis of nature and technology. Where in the past we have been using technology in order to control nature, we now strive to find a balance. A way of working with the benefits of both. Striving to create a new livable future. Want to find out more about symbiosis and meet our talents?

Keep up to date with our blog, follow our socials and take a look at the other experiments on our location side during the Dutch Design Week 2021.