by An artist talk by Christiaan Zwanikken especially for the people of the Convento’s community gardens and other interested.
He talked about his experiments and experiences with worms to compost materials, growing special medicinal and aromatic plants and essential oil distillation.
He demonstrated and explained his three most recent bio works:
High-rise Incubating Observatory: his latest addition to the larger techno botanical framework he is exploring. These modular grow-boxes have independent automatic systems to control light, temperature, humidity and CO2 measurements. An automated micro indoor greenhouse to start and grow lots of young plants all year round.
Lazy Alchemist: a computer controlled essential oil distiller that he has been developing the last 4 years to catch the smells of the Convento gardens and the Alentejo.
Nose Patrol: an art installation shown in the chapel of the Convento that consists of two man-sized, computerized, mechanical sculptures that move around their horizontal and vertical axes while creating three dimensional aromatic clouds that are visible, audible and feel-able. For the scents the essential oils are used that are made by Christiaan.
He also showed short films of the Kinetic Garden: a project for a municipal building in Holland to purify and filter the air with (aromatic) plants indoors to create a better and healthier environment for people to work in.
