Alison Hiltner
It Is Yesterday (detail), 2017
52 plastic polymer vessels filled with cyanobacteria (spirulina), sensor, pumps, relays, various hardware, steel and stainless steel, video projection, workstation with tanks, 24 x 100 x 20 feet
By breathing into the sensor, visitors create an exchange with the cyanobacteria, their carbon dioxide for the cyanobacteria's release of more oxygen in the form of more bubbling as an excited utterance. The aggregate CO2 data that is collected acts as a baseline for the aeration pumps allowing the sacks to "inhale" and "exhale", when the audience is not controlling the sacks with their breath.