Chronicles from In-Between 495 to 570 nm investigates the ongoing paradox between technological progress, new media art creation and their impact on the natural environment, through a multi-layered artistic research and production process. Rooted in Kasia Molga’s frustration with new computer technologies and her belief that it is important to gather information and stories to help us hold onto the memory of our fading natural environment, against landscape amnesia, the project brings forth an interdisciplinary team looking at the societal and biodiversity implications of technological expansion.

The Romanian stage of Kasia Molga’s project focuses on three key research areas:

• Scientific research into plant biodiversity in Bucharest, focused on a specific area alongside the Dâmbovița river - Lacul Morii and Grozăvești, an area profoundly impacted by the buildings that were built in the 1990s and 2000s, to host the myriad of young workers employed by the newly established IT industry
• Cultural research through ethnographic interviews with elderly people, exploring the fading collective memory of our natural environments. The stories collected will form the narrative foundation of a future VR experience, adding the Romanian stories to the international community-based chronicles.
• 3D and technical research in collab with students in the Animation department at UNATC, resulting in 3D models of the plants identified during the scientific research stage, afterwards incorporated into the VR experience

This stage of the project materialises in a series of sculptures of assembled copper parts, mainly from computers (used in processor units, graphic cards, or cooling systems), surrendered to verdigris, through an artificially accelerated degradation process, for creating the verdigrid pigment. In parallel, the pigment is used to create a series of paintings, in a technique stemming from the Renaissance, depicting plants that become locally extinct or endangered due to technological acceleration. The culminating point is the digital prototype for a VR experience, created through an international community-based project, using this tool to fight for a green space that now only exists in the memories of our elders.

Team: Kasia Molga (lead artist), Dr. Claudia Schnugg, Andrei Tudose (curators), Dr. Roxana Nicoară (scientific consultant), Irina Bobei (cultural researcher), Alina Rusu, Gabi Stoiciu (3D & technical research), Mirela Vlad (animation coordination), Cosmin Ciobanu (production support)

Partners: Institute of Biology Bucharest, UNATC, V2_ Lab for Unstable Media, Dark Euphoria, Polish Institute in Bucharest, Goethe Institut, Austrian Cultural Forum, Leonardo/Olats, Radio România Cultural, Zile și Nopți, IQads, Ziarul Metropolis, Ravista Golan, Happ.ro

The Urban Green Blueprint is co-financed by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund.
The project does not necessarily represent the position of The Administration of the National Cultural Fund (AFCN). The Administration of the National Cultural Fund is not responsible for the content of the project or the manner in which the results of the project may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the funding recipient.