Page 242 - The Black Box Book

moving images, towards artworks as open cybernetic systems, involving
social actors or living ecosystems.
We can compare one of the original works of Hans Haacke with
a contemporary example to underline analogies between the systems art
of 1970s and the present. Hans Haacke’s Rhine-Water Purification Plant
(1972) at the Krefeld Museum, included a device for purifying water from
the Rhine with functional chemical treatment and water filtration using
activated carbon and sand. The purified water was pumped into a large
transparent acrylic tank with swimming goldfish to demonstrate how it
is possible to construct a life-supporting system technologically. Howev-
er, the project also intervened behind the cosmetic patch of restorative
eco-aesthetics. Haacke documented the extent of the pollution of the
wastewater discharged into the Rhine in Krefeld, which amounted to
42 million cubic meters each year, and quantified the volume and types
of industrial and domestic waste, listing the main polluters. The project
addressed the need to restore the degraded ecosystem and pointed out
the city’s role in pollution, which attracted attention from the local me-
dia He called the political effect of this work “a real-time social system”. Figure 2: Brain, T. (2011, 2021). Coin-Operated Wetland.
(Demos, 2016, p. 47) Retrieved from http://tegabrain.com/Coin-Operated-Wetland. Recreates
natural water purification circuit in a gallery. Image by Alex Davies.

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