Compost as Superfood

masharu is based in The Netherlands. They have Russian roots and consider themself earth eater and earth lover. They have travelled worldwide collecting earth samples for taste testing and artistic purposes. “The Museum of Edible Earth” is masharu’s main and current project, and the museum’s archive has its base in Amsterdam.
Dr masharu and their team presented “Compost as Superfood” at the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz Austria. This event took place between the 4th and 8th of September of 2024 at different venues throughout the city. Masharu’s installation was presented at POSTCity, the former post-processing factory in Linz. This venue was also the largest exhibition space of the festival, with 4 floors and 80000m2 digital media artworks from all over Europe and the world. Many spaces in Linz hosted the festival programme with a total of 19 locations that you could visit during the Ars Electronica Festival.
“Compost as a Superfood” was a “slow food” installation located on the 3rd floor of POSTCity and it consisted of two rooms and an outside screen showing the composting process. Starting from the first steps, the video showed the studio team of masharu buying and harvesting the primary materials such as fruits and vegetables. Following on, you could see the hands-on process of turning the plant-based ingredients into pieces, getting chopped, combined with hay and fermented in a pile that had to be turned daily. The video presented before the entrance of the venue was a short summary of 3 months of fieldwork in Linz. You could sit, watch, and read a piece of paper explaining the stats, quantifiable characteristics, and changes in the compost during the fermentation process, such as humidity, temperature, and nitrogen levels.
When you stepped into the first room, the change in atmosphere was immediate. The smell stood out foremost, fresh and earthy, like the scent of rain. The space felt like a cavern, with soft, muted lights and humidity in the air. The walls had a rough, dusty finish, remnants of the building bunker’s industrial past, and everything was cast in shades of grey.
In the centre of the room was a large pile of compost, raw and earthy, as if it was still fermenting in a farmyard. It dominated the space, adding to the cavern-like feel. At the back of the room, two smaller piles of compost were displayed in glass jars atop pedestals, standing like artefacts. Between them, an opening invited you deeper into the second room of the installation.

Molecular photography, a technique that comes from science

Alongside the compost installation, there were 5 images made with molecular photography. A technique that rather comes from scientific practices as it serves purposes such as taking “pictures” of minuscule chemical reactions and the movement of particles. This technique does not capture light, as one would expect from a digital or analogue camera. During the molecular photography process the machine rather senses rapid energy changes in particles and translates them into an image. The end result is a black-and-white print that can be coloured separately if desired.
masharu commented that this type of photography was what helped them to make the leap from their former studies in mathematics of images into the world of art. As they have also studied photography, they and their professors started to notice some aesthetic elements in masharu’s molecular photographs and started relating it to artistic processes and not merely to science. This field of mathematics of images comes from computer science. It studies how algorithms are created and used in order to make light and pixels appear in a certain order on our screens to form shapes and colours.
Continuing, into the second room, you could find the other part of the installation. It consisted of an abundance of objects that were part of the experiments that resulted in compost. In science, especially biology, the science of life, earth is the playground, and anything can happen. On one of the walls of the second room, there was elaborated information that explained the cycle of soil and how to renew it with composting as a technique to have healthier earth / soil for other species, not only humans. How, if we address our organic waste, can this benefit other species that live, eat and reproduce in the organic matter, such as small plants and insects? The artist had the idea of making germination tests, as this is rich in organic matter soil, and since it is very nutritious, seedlings sprung up during the composting process. These little sprouts were placed into cups and exhibited alongside samples of the 4 different composts being developed during the project.
In the second room, another projection lit up one of the walls. This video showcased the tiny creatures that call compost home—worms, isopods, ants—busy moving and thriving in their rich, nutrient-packed environment. Filmed with a macro lens, the insects appeared massive, with worms seeming as big as humans or even larger. Walking through these spaces felt like you had shrunk down to their scale, experiencing the vastness of the earth from the perspective of its smallest inhabitants. In this sense, the artwork was an installation that transported us into the guts of the earth by stimulating all of our senses.

Eat (dirt) at your own risk

“Eat (dirt) at your own risk” was the sign displayed next to spoons and four vases, each containing a different compost experiment. Naturally,  I did end up trying them. In my opinion, the overnight oats were the tastiest pile of compost. It was hard to swallow compared to previous experiments of the same artist that i recalled. This was fresh organic material, and some pieces were soft and others crunchy. I even noticed tasting a piece of very fibrous straw in one of the four compost piles available for testing.

Dr. masaru is well known for its eating-first installations, and there is a similar one that is permanently exhibited in the Ars Electronica Centre in Linz called “There is no planet B”. This installation of dirt samples is clay-centred and not compost; hence, the texture is very different. Clay is disintegrated into smaller particles, giving it a softer, more gooey consistency that clings to the roof of your mouth, kind of like peanut butter. Compost, on the other hand, has bigger, crunchier chunks that can be pieces of wood or straw. The taste and colour of the clays also vary a lot as these can have different mineral compositions.

The artist conveys that they deem it important to recognize the interactions between Earth and humanity, as we are, after all, living on this planet and are part of it. We depend on the earth for sustenance. In pre-modern Europe and also in non-western cultures, eating dirt is praised for medicinal and ritual purposes, but in Western cultures, this practice is associated with mental illness and is classified as an eating disorder. One thing is clear: if we are to have a sustainable future, we need to take care of and maintain the health of our soil.

Opening up the term technology

masharu uses technology as an umbrella term, allowing it to be both human-exclusive and an inter-species experience. They consider different beliefs that are not Western-centred allowing other beings to experiment alongside as co-creators. As a photographer, their practice focuses on the image and its capacities. The aesthetic and scientific. This work is intriguing as it would be very hard to present this type of installation as research in a scientific environment. In this case, art allows masharu to deliver an outcome that can be more easily understood by others as art appeals to experience to carry a message. In this sense the gathering of data serves an aesthetic purpose and is presented as a work of art in a festival that combines art, science and technology. This festival is where science indulges in speculative design and possible futures allowing the artist to take poetic licenses. This is also reflected in the outcome. An art installation that relies heavily on scientific data and aestheticizes it. 

The artist included a pile of compost still in fermentation, placing it near the smoking area where we conducted the interview. Unlike the other compost piles, this one was actively monitored for temperature and humidity. It blended into its surroundings, and the smokers nearby may or may not have realized it was part of masharu and the team’s artwork, as there was little sign identifying it as such.

Ars Electronica highlights

At the end of the interview, I thanked the Amsterdam-based artist for their time spent with me. Dr. masaru went back to the -3 floor for a guided visit with the curator of the Ars Electronica Festival, and I wandered around the first floor of the POSTcity Centre, looking for other artworks that also caught my eye. As a highlights of the festival, I must add a couple of artworks I enjoyed: First, a collective work by Sonandes, a Bolivian platform for experimentation and research that was the winner of the CIFO award with a work called “Triangle of Sacrifice”. Their duration installation presents a real-time depiction of fossil water extraction in the Andean region, specifically within the lithium triangle formed by Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile. It emphasizes the resources being mined to create the electronics we use in our daily lives.
The VR experience titled “Interwoven Existence” was created by Xi’an Jiaotong Liverpool University. It was featured in the “Campus Exhibition,” which showcased various universities from around the world. This artwork incorporated bamboo plants into the exhibition space, creating a unique atmosphere. The scent of the bamboo enhanced the immersive experience as participants paddled for their lives in the Tai Lake within the VR game.
An artwork that stuck with me was a poetic piece titled “Heart to Heart” by Chanitnanth Phadungnanont from Bauhaus University in Weimar. This installation features a screenless projection of heartbeats, creating an interactive experience that transcends digital, verbal, and physical barriers through the universal language of heartbeats. It allows participants to explore deep connections, fostering empathy and self-discovery.  Visitors were invited to sit in a comfortable chair and place a contact microphone near their heart. The sounds are transmitted to a suspended metallic fountain, which captures the vibrations and displays lights that project fluid movements onto the wall. This piece was refreshing and introspective, especially since the rest of the festival focused on AI, VR, and screens. This “low-tech” body interactive installation provided a welcome moment to unwind amid the data overload at the Ars Electronica POSTcity Centre.
Lastly, I want to highlight that a soup kitchen was organized by volunteers, offering a vegan plate accompanied by bread and jam. Visitors also had the option to donate food for others in need. After interviewing Dr. masharu, exploring numerous works of art, and strolling through the festival venues in Linz, I stood by the Danube, watching the warm-toned summer sunset. It was a fulfilling yet overwhelming experience. I considered it a truly wonderful day that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Date of Interview 08.08.2024

Website: Dr. masharu
Instagram: Dr. masharu
Website: Ars Electronica Festival 2024
Written by: Lupe Paredes