{"id":68108,"date":"2025-07-16T21:00:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T21:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/68108\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T21:00:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T21:00:16","slug":"thijs-bierstekers-digital-sculptures-translate-climate-data-into-urgent-calls-to-action-colossal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/68108\/","title":{"rendered":"Thijs Biersteker’s Digital Sculptures Translate Climate Data into Urgent Calls to Action \u2014 Colossal"},"content":{"rendered":"

An unassuming cacao tree in Indonesia has made a unique connection to a high-tech artwork in China. Thanks to multimedia digital artist Thijs Biersteker<\/a>, \u201cORIGIN\u201d is a sculpture \u2014 a \u201cdigital twin\u201d \u2014 that reflects the elemental experiences of the tropical tree through pulses of light.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it\u00a0rains in Indonesia, you see the\u00a0sap flow through the sculpture\u00a0in real time,\u201d the artist says. \u201cWhen the\u00a0air quality\u00a0shifts, the flows respond. During a heatwave, the tree visibly struggles. This real-time installation reveals just how fragile the cacao supply chain has become.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

A majority of cacao, the primary ingredient in chocolate, is cultivated in places that are also the most vulnerable to the effects of the climate crisis. Extreme weather, habitat destruction, and other issues also mean that global food resiliency<\/a> is increasingly threatened.<\/p>\n

For Biersteker, data provides unique insights into changes on the ground, and through a recent collaboration with the Indonesian Coffee and Cocoa Research Institute (ICCRI), he devised a way to literally illuminate environmental impacts.<\/p>\n

The artist is particularly interested in the relationship between data and nature, especially our scientific understanding of climate change and how it affects biodiversity, food, and habitats. Hooking up sensors to a specimen at ICCRI\u2019s research site in Java, Bierksteker created a translucent, sculptural mirror of the tree, which is currently installed at Zaishui Art Museum in the city of Rizhao, Shandong Province.<\/p>\n

Another work, \u201cWITHER,\u201d in collaboration with UNICEF, comprises a tropical installation with flickering leaves representing rainforest loss. Each flicker symbolizes 128 square meters of deforestation, based on data from Amazon rainforest watch groups. And \u201cECONTINUUM,\u201d a collaboration with Stefano Mancuso, invites us into a kind of \u201cconversation\u201d occurring between tree roots in a twinkling digital composition. The work nods to recent scientific discoveries that suggest trees communicate<\/a> with one another via their intricate subterranean systems to provide or request nutrients or warn others of dangers like disease or infestations.<\/p>\n

\"an\u201cWITHER\u201d<\/p>\n

For \u201cORIGIN,\u201d the live cacao tree in Java transmits information, its digital copy animating with fluctuating light. \u201cThis mirrors the role of the institutions behind it: making the invisible visible and reconnecting people with the systems that feed them,\u201d Biersteker says in a statement. \u201cIt is where data begins to speak to the imagination and where data-driven art becomes a new language for change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Explore more on Bierksteker\u2019s website<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>. If you enjoy pieces that explore the intersection of data and nature, you\u2019ll also like Marshmallow Laser Feast\u2019s \u201cOf the Oak<\/a>\u201d installation at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"aDetails of cacao tree in Java and \u201cORIGIN\u201d<\/p>\n

\"aDetail of \u201cORIGIN\u201d<\/p>\n

\"aDetail of \u201cECONTINUUM\u201d<\/p>\n

\"aDetail of \u201cORIGIN\u201d<\/p>\n

\"aDetail of \u201cORIGIN\u201d<\/p>\n

\"an\u201cWITHER\u201d<\/p>\n

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