Remotely Native - Sebastian Acker

REMOTELY NATIVE

(2018)
Botanical signs with QR-Codes linking to interactive online maps.

Remotely Native was first installed as a site specific work for May the Bridges I Burn Light the Way, a group show curated by Exile gallery for Manifesta 12 in Palermo, where signs were installed next to common plants in public spaces. Scanning the QR-Codes opens an interactive map which can be explored with two fingers like Google Maps.

Each plant is linked to a satellite image of a region where it is native or originated from, including rain forest in Guatemala, the coast of Libya and mountains in Myanmar. The colour magenta makes healthy vegetation visible by representing an infrared spectrum which strongly reflects chlorophyll in plant leafs and is normally invisible to the human eye. This remote sensing method, which is normally employed commercially and scientifically to monitor health in vegetation, is instead used in an attempt to visualise ‘the plants view’ onto human infrastructure and migration.

The project was part of the Manifesta 5x5x5 Program curated by Exile Gallery, Berlin. Special thanks to Vincent van Uffelen for support with mapping.

Remotely Native (2018), installation view (Yucca Elephantipes), Palermo, Italy

Remotely Native (2018), detail

Remotely Native (2018), screenshot of interactive satellite map (Yucca Elephantipes) showing Guatemala

Remotely Native (2018), installation view (Lime Tree), Palermo, Italy

Remotely Native (2018), screenshot of interactive satellite map (Citrus Tree) showing mountains in Myanmar

Remotely Native (2018), installation view (Chamaerops Humilis), Palermo, Italy

Remotely Native (2018), screenshot of interactive satellite map (Chamaerops Humilis) showing the coast of Tripoli

Remotely Native (2018), detail