Programming Computers with Dirt: Earthboot Powers PCs with Geological Energy

 Howse, center, working on Radio Mycelium in Brussels, 2011. Photo by Nik Gaffney

Dirt is Martin Howse‘s domain. The Berlin-based artist is interested in the intuitive connection between technology and the Earth. His latest project, Earthboot, boots computers from the naturally-occurring electricity from the Earth, which literally codes the computer. What appears on the screen is actually art.

Howse is an artist best known for programming, writing and performing, and is no stranger to treading from software to substances and back again. Since 1998, he has been participating at international festivals, and is known to “cross the division of code and matter.” He’s taken pilgrimages into the leafy wilds of Germany, Switzerland, and England, and has conducted technology burials in Hackney Marshes, where he returns technology back to the dirt it came from to celebrate “the projected end of technology.”

The whole process can be dubbed as a type of performance art. Or in the spirit of American artist Robert Smithson, creator of the grand outdoor sculpture Spiral Jetty, what Howse is doing is the new land art. But the Earth speaks in abstract ways. Onscreen, we see glitches which call to mind the hard-edge abstraction of Ellsworth Kelly or Claude Tousignant, or even the op art of Bridget Riley.

Along with Earthboot, Howse’s recent work includes a similar project called “Composing the City, Composting the Net,” as well as work with worms and their electrical impulses. To find out more about his work, I chatted with Howse, a conversation that veered into a discussion of magic mushrooms, the burial of technology, and psychic resonance.

Motherboard: How did this all come about with Earthboot? Did it begin last year in Berlin?
Martin: I’ve been interested for a long time in what connections there might be between technology and the Earth. I felt that there was some kind of intuitive link as well as realizing that, of course, much of the material that constitutes computers and technology is mined directly from the Earth in mineral form.

Earthboot device. Photo by Martin Howse

I wanted to explore this connection very literally, and came up with the idea that rather than boot up a computer from a hard drive or USB stick, we could boot the computer straight from the Earth—with material fluctuations as naturally-occurring electricity in the Earth literally coding the computer. I made a few tests with Earth measurement in 2011 and last year prototyped the Earthboot device in Berlin.

How will the weather affect its strength? Does it work better in some regions over others, you’ve found?
It works best when the soil is quite damp but not too wet. I’ve tested the device in Berlin and in Zurich. Recently I started using the same device in performances and working more with compost, particularly worms!

How similar is this to “Composting the City, Composting the Net?” Are they part of the same vision and collective?
“Composting the City, Composting the Net” is Shu Lea Cheang’s project. She’s a good friend and I often work with her. She asked me to collaborate with her on the project, which looks at parallels in decay, sedimentation and re-working/worming between the Internet and urban composting initiatives. I started performing with her (most recently as part of Art and Communication festival in Riga), trying to sonify micro-movements and fluctuations in worm compost and rotting vegetables. I modified the Earthcode device to become more wormcode and to output audio coded by the worms.

Earthboot screengrab, via Martin Howse

You cite that The Crystal World attempted to dope several mycological substrates to create a computational fruiting oyster mushroom. How did that work out? Were you a part of it?
Yes, I tried this in The Crystal World workshops organized with Jonathan Kemp and Ryan Jordan in Berlin and London. We would extract minerals such as silver and lead from junked computers and mobile phones and attempt to grow oyster mushrooms on sawdust, which was soaked in this extracted chemistry. The mushrooms seemed to thrive on this substrate but there was little evidence of any incipient computational mushrooming.

Mistake me if I’m wrong but it sounds like magic mushrooms.
It’s true, and more recent work is also headed in an attempt to fuse computational processes with psychedelic mushrooms. We’re looking closely at the psychopharmacology of certain mushrooms such as the Amanita muscaria! I’ve been working in different ways with fungi for several years, attempting to find ways that humans can communicate with this unique species.

The Earthcode Monument was presented as part of an evening ceremony, buried in the garage behind General Public. There was also a burial on Hackney Marshes last year as well. What was achieved at these gatherings?  Is the stuff still there? It reminds me of a time machine ritual.
The burial of an Earthcode monument in Hackney Marshes last year was probably the most significant gathering. I’m interested in these rituals (and yes, they do share much with the idea of a time machine) in commemorating the end of technology by returning the essence of technology back to the Earth which it came from. So they are monuments and rituals, celebrating the projected end of technology. I hope that the Hackney Marsh monument is still there. Hopefully it will have grown and changed.

How does a burial shake down, exactly? What is the process and the ritual?
The burial is quite simple. Collectively, we melted down certain elements from old computers—hard drives and processors for example—and also extracted some minerals in acid solutions. These were placed in a special ceramic container to allow some exchange between Earth and chemistry, and the container was sealed with a glass lid. Then we would divine a location on the Marshes using different techniques, a bit like dowsing. A hole was dug, and the container buried and left. It doesn’t sound so ritualistic but there is time for reflection. And it’s definitely something which other people can do in different forms, maybe using safer chemistry!

“Composting the City, Composting the Net,” Berlin 2012. Photo by Kathrin Guenter

Will you go and unearth what was left at Hackney Marshes at some point? Why was it the most significant gathering?
I did think about this, but decided against any unearthing as it would destroy the monument. In some sense it should not be observed, but perhaps have some psychic resonant effects on people crossing the marshes, walking dogs. I think it was most significant because there is a strong sense of place there, and we’d worked during The Crystal World for several months close to that location.

How much is this one big science experiment? It feels so multi-faceted.
It does have some things in common with science and draws on scientific and engineering principles, but for quite different aims. I view science as a conspiracy which artists need to address.

In an interview with Arte, you say “The earth is my motherboard.” What does the earth and technology have to do with each other? How does this fuel your practice?
I think there’s a strong connection between technology and the Earth. Firstly there’s a link with geology. Most technology, based on silicon chips, semiconductors, originates in the Earth, and is mined from the Earth. So-called obsolete technology is returned to the Earth as often poisonous by-products of recycling. There’s also a connection with time, with Earth or geological time, and different scales of time measured in GHz of millions of years.

Lastly, I think somewhat intuitively that technology is something which buries us (like the Earth); buries us in a snow of white noise, of pixels. One question I’m very interested in which you could say fuels my research is to ask where exactly software executes. In other words, where exactly do these seemingly abstract coded processes which seriously effects our lives, where do these take place? 

At first it seems simple, somewhere inside this machine or black box, a laptop, a smartphone, but looking at it closer there’s no easy answer. And I feel that this answer has to do with our skin and the Earth.

What lies in the future for Earthboot? I imagine you’ve got more plans in the works.
At the moment, I’ve been working on modifying the Earthboot device to work more closely with worms’ electrical impulses. This relates to the composting work, but I’ve also recently been experimenting with the device as a means for worms to write texts for us; a way to communicate with the worms using the Earthboot. The texts have been sung and recited and will be published as worm poetry. I’m also working on the Earthcodes project; the latest stage is to cast and embed fluid logic in the earth.