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Breeding Resilience: Thriving in Orange Air

Part 2 Project 2020
Viany Sutisna
 National University of Singapore | Singapore
The annual peatland fires in Central Kalimantan has transformed the invisible, formless, life-giving element air into haze that corrupts and threatens the very breath that supports life. At PSI levels of 2900, the air turns orange due to Rayleigh scattering. Site visit revealed that while city dwellers were privileged to have Oxygen Houses and Mobile Oxygen Vans for oxygen treatment, villagers were forced to innovate their own survival mechanisms through the creation of breathing aids made of plastic bottles, aquarium pumps and face masks.

The proposal argues for ""adhoc"" and ""village engineering"" as a much more adaptive and effective mechanism in dealing with the hyperobject haze, as compared to anthropocentrically-scaled, heroic constructs of science, economics and politics that merely distance the issue at hand. The critical environmental conditions call for the return of animistic beliefs and rituals of the indigenous, as structures are molded from local materials to support breathing and rewet fire-prone lands. As the structures morph and transform mechanically foregrounded against the orange-gradient, the distinction between man, animal and village engineering structures are blurred, as survival mechanisms are activated in response to the fire and heat that is at hand, forming an aesthetic of resilience and adaptation.







Tutor(s)
Tsuto Sakamoto
2020
Haze as hyperobject: the invisible, formless, life – giving element, has been corrupted and threatens our wellbeing. At PSI levels of 2900, the air turns orange due to Rayleigh scattering.
Algae breathing prototypes developed as an attempt to increase oxygen production
The Oxygen Shrine: a place of ritual and refuge for spiritual and physical survival
The Belly of the Beast becomes a space for prayer and breathing. After breathing fresh oxygen, people feel like an immortal animal.
The Watchtower: rewetting peatlands prone to fire
Revealing its wings like the Great Wings of the Argus Pheasant, the Watchtower fights fire in mad fit of spraying water from its limbs, drawing water from the existing deep well network.
The ‘adhoc’ logic of construction evident in the urban fabric is maximized as an advanced form of village engineering. Primitive materials and systems aggregate together to form a complex structure that functions mechanically for a specific purpose.
Renders. Under the haze, there is no distinction between human, animal and infrastructure.
Rituals as Survival: re-adoption of indigenous practices as a resultant of critical environmental conditions
Silhouette Effect as An Aesthetic of Resilience: survival mechanisms are activated in response to the fire and heat that is at hand. Instead of being swallowed by the haze, these structures transform mechanically against the orange-gradient background, th
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