Vicious Cycle

In the framework of the exhibition Vicious Cycle, on 26 March, there is an artist talk of Cammack Lindsey, together with the scientist Charlotte Shampera (TU Berlin, Water Quality Engineering).

In March 2022 scientific research revealed that microplastic pollution is now present in the human body. It moves around in the blood, lands in organs and passes to infants via breast milk. The exhibition title Vicious Cycle is based on this closed cycle of human disturbance of the environment and its return to the human and nonhuman body. In the exhibition the artists’ investigative and research-oriented works explore the problem of microplastics in soil, the impact of climate change and the effects of excessive agricultural activity on the water, soil, animals and wildlife.

Cammack Lindsey’s Wem gehört die Welt? is a site-specific sound installation based on the artist’s ongoing research on Müggelsee Berlin that features Microcystis aeruginosa and Müggelsee water samples in amorph containers in a network in-
spired by colony formations of most commonly toxin producing cyanobacterium Microcystis. As water pollution persists due to agricultural fertilisers and industrial disposals, the growth of toxic, along with non-toxic, cyanobacteria (also known as blue-green algae) blooms contaminate bodies of water. From historical and scientific analysis, what is the relationship of the occurrence of cyanobacteria blooms in Müggelsee to the economics of water: its price, consumption and treatment? Deriving its title from the 1932 film Kuhle Wampe oder Wem gehört die Welt?, written by Bertolt Brecht, this project pieces together stories within the setting of the Müggelsee lake from a proletarian lens.

Cammack Lindsey, is an artist whose practice includes BioArt DIY techniques and political musical theater, expanding this space to redistribute stolen futures through performances and installations, they work together with code, voice, sound, & the materialization of magic, ghosts, and clouds. Based in Berlin, they produced their first 8-hour musical with M.I/mi1glissé at Acker Stadt Palast in May 2017 and in 2019, premiered their most recent musical composition ‘ ∫ ( { } )_ visible window’, releasing the recording online with the label Quantum Natives. Their works have been presented in Berlin at KW, State Studio, HAU, Art Laboratory Berlin and internationally at Cafe Oto (London), Ars Electronica (Linz), RIXC Open Fields (Riga) and Encuentro Tecnofeminista (Mexico City).

Charlotte Schampera studied Biological Science in Münster and subsequently Integrated Natural Resource Management at Humboldt University Berlin receiving a Masters degree. For her thesis project and accompanying research position at Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fishery (IGB), stationed at Müggelsee Berlin, she investigated disease dynamics in phytoplankton. Since 2021 she is a part of the Graduate College Urban Water Interfaces (UWI) and employed at Technical University Berlin in the working group Water Quality Engineering studying cyanobacterial ecology and toxin production.