Installation view, On the Far Side of the Marchlands, Ernst Schering Foundation, Berlin, 2017. Participating artists: Keeley Haftner, Morehshin Allahyari, Cathrine Disney, Brittany Ransom and Daniel Rourke.
Photos courtesy the artist, transmediale, and Ernst Schering Foundation, Berlin
Photo: Luca Girardini, CC BY NC-SA 4.0
Terrarium, compostable plastic 3D prints, thermometer/hydrometer, microbes, soil, soil heating cable, sand_STL file: Zotrax Voronoi Sphere by ZRAFT_55 x 55 x 55cm_2017
“Black Box” is a sculpture that was created for Schering Stiftung (Berlin)’s “On the Far Side of the Marshlands” exhibition, curated by Morehshin Allahyari and Daniel Rourke for the thirtieth anniversary of Transmediale. The sculpture investigated the allegedly compostable properties of what was then the most commonly-used 3D-printing plastic: PLA (polylactic acid). 3D-printed PLA Voronoi spheres were added to the sculpture slowly throughout the exhibition, so that changes could be tracked as the sculptures “degraded.” This Haacke-esque cube reproduced what was stated to be the ideal conditions for biodegradation, including micororganisms, 50-60% moisture, and 40-59 degrees Celsius. Not the slightest bit of degradation was witnessed. Four years later, in 2021, these results were confirmed by a research paper published in the peer-reviewed Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry journal.
Haftner was also included in The 3D Additivist Cookbook (2017). The “cookbook”, devised and edited by Morehshin Allahyari & Daniel Rourke, is a free compendium of imaginative, provocative works from over 100 world-leading artists, activists and theorists. The 3D Additivist Cookbook contains .obj and .stl files for the 3D printer, as well as critical and fictional texts, templates, recipes, (im)practical designs and methodologies for living in this most contradictory of times.