TABOO - TRANSGRESSION - TRANSCENDENCE

Some might say our planet is sick. Very sick due to ongoing environmental violence plaguing planet earth. Current solutions claiming conservation through innovation only result in further devastation. So maybe it’s time to throw a wrench into these techno-utopian systems and find another way to lubricate the machine?

Over 71% of earth is made up of water. What if we could “cure” our environmental problems by simply drinking it? A special water that when drunk, makes you kinda, well drunk – a biophilia drunkenness!

The dream is slowly becoming a reality through a new breakthrough in bioengineering one of the earth’s most magical creatures – oysters. Oysters not only filter polluted water, over 50 gallons per day, but are known to be aphrodisiacs when eaten by humans. What if with a little CRISPR-ing we could move beyond our insatiable consumptive desires into new sensorial and energetic pleasures to create a public sentient machine, just by taking a drink of water? Would the ability to create an enhanced state of sentience in humans – a “Sentience 2.0”, enable us to have more profound interactions with the other-than-human world, lending to less extractive lifestyles?

“Aquadisia Version 2.0” will expand on earlier versions of this speculative design project that plays on the myth of the oyster as an aphrodisiac to reimagine a more mutually symbiotic relationship between humans and other-than-humans. Depleted land-based resources are mobilizing new technologies of extraction into our oceans and seas. Using a tactical media approach, “Aquadisia” demystifies the black box paradox of this new “blue economy” through humor and hyperbole. The performance or performative talk will take the form of a ritual-as-infomercial. Attendees will learn the secret of “Aquadisia” and join in a celebratory toast of a special vintage “Aquadisia” water created for TTT from the depths of the Adriatic Sea.