Towards a New Symbiosis in the Mexican Environment: Art and Science

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Contemporary art has taken different directions, the most recent artwork of the Mexican artist Gilberto Esparza deals mostly with microorganisms, environment issues and electronic media focused on different kinds of transformations and implications. In his last project entitled Plantas Nómadas (Nomadic Plants), up to date technological developments are integrated into his artwork that navigates the everyday life proposing a new urban ecosystem. His work is based on the recycling of consumption technology, human wastes and a robotic mechanism that survives from served waters and solar energy. The complex system obtains the nutrients from bacteria contained in polluted water, those bacteria are temporarily lodged in a micro biotic chamber of the robot and together with two flexible solar cells provide the necessary energy to keep the machine moving and feeding a green plant. The hybrid machine-nature ecosystem tries to adapt itself to an altered state of nature. The fourth and last step of the riveting project that is under development at the University of Guanajuato in Mexico can be seen on the web page: