Earth Cancer

EARTH CANCER

Soil’s health is an important issue on a global scale. The soil sustains life and ensures our liveable conditions. 2015 has been declared the International Year of Soils by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Although it is a global issue, we need to act locally. The preservation of this precious resource is dependent on our understanding of its value on a personal level. Now the Earth`s soil is decaying rapidly. The cancer-like symptoms of the Earth are of the utmost importance to the public and are central to our survival. 

The Earth Cancer is an ongoing action based art project, exploring the most important resource on the planet - our soil. The project consists of several sub-projects such as soil samples, an autonomous drone (Dropbot), a soil scanner and a soil archivist application (TECA). 

Currently we are more interested in exploring other planets more than our own. We should investigate Earth before Mars. The project is exhibited in planetarium like environments, acting as an observatory of our own planet.

Scientists confirm that the health of our planet’s topsoil has dramatically decreased in the last 150 years (World Wildlife Fund, 2015). All the elements of the project are developed to investigate the hypothesis that the soil on the Earth is infected with a cancerous disease and is slowly perishing: hence the title Earth Cancer. We are proposing a hypothesis that the Earth Cancer infection is spreading, threatening to infect the whole world. Global transportation and communication is an obvious transmitter of sick soil. This project shows various evidences of Earth Cancer and informs about its devastating impacts. 

Project by: Zane Cerpina, Julia Spicina