SUPERSTUDIO 2024 - DOMESTICATED FOODSCAPES - EAST LABORATORY - EPFL

Synopsis:

Grangenueve represents the image of a model farm that acts as a miniature scale model of what agricultural production should look like in Switzerland. Automated assistance helps increase the intensity of productivity, while connections to the private and public sector allow for the lobbying of new technologies that fast track the natural cycles of both livestock and crop cultivation. This reality is sharply contrasted with that of a local farm whose means of production are more limited and in synchrony with natural cycles. 

In this tension an error emerges and a new system reboot is needed to construct an alternative image of a model farm based on different parameters, cue the download of swissagro_REBOOT.exe.

Two new systems consider the need to transform the relationship between production-territory by imagining scenarios where we retire cows from their duties of production, of both milk, its cheese derivatives and meat, and look for other means of food sovereignty through protein rich crops. This would have a direct effect on levels of biodiversity, C02 emissions and a restoration of forest ecosystems that are denied through intense grazing activities. These two models do not agree with each other, but they do outline two trajectories, two potentialities which, in our view, should open up dialogue towards an intermediate position.

Authors: Arthur Breen, Alexandros Trivizas, François Megret, Louis Queloz, Paulina Beron