Nick Laessing (UK associate) explores the interfaces of art, technology and eco-crisis. His research project life-systems, addresses how art can confront ecological issues such as food and energy production through speculative and revisionist technologies that encourage participation and engagement. He is currently a PhD researcher at The Slade School of Art and The Electrochemical Innovation Laboratory, University College London, researching evolving methodologies for artistic practice within discourses of the Anthropocene and eco-crisis.
As a Delfina Foundation UK Associate during autumn 2019, Nick will continue to work on Plant Orbiter, a hydroponic machine he built to test the NASA theory that growing plants in anti-gravity conditions can increase plant growth and yield. The project engages with questions surrounding the future of urban food production and the role of technology in self-sufficiency. During the residency collaborators will be invited to cultivate plant food using the machine. This will contribute towards a publication that will reflect on the experience of ‘usership’.
Nick is currently exhibiting Plant Orbiter and Sun Cooker in the group exhibition Europe after the Rain, at Newlyn Gallery, UK. Recent projects and exhibitions include the V&A’s Great Exhibition Road Festival, Experimental Futures at Rostock Kunsthalle, No Such Thing As Gravity at FACT Liverpool and The Promise Of Total Automation at Kunsthalle Wien.
The development of Plant Orbiter was generously supported by galeriepcp, Paris.
Nick was previously in-residence during the fourth season of the thematic programme The Politics of Food in spring 2019.
THEMATIC PROGRAMME
science_technology_society:
Season 1
RESIDENCY SEASON
Artist’s website
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Please note all artist-in-residence biographies are accurate at the time of their residency. For up-to-date bios please visit the artist’s website.