Memory Berry (2024) is an immersive installation exhibited at DXARTS Gallery in Spring 2024, envisioning a future where humanity’s knowledge is encoded in genetically modified strawberries. The installation invites viewers to engage with artifacts crafted from latex, synthetic hair, and wax, and to leave their own DNA samples on blue hydrogel pads. This speculative scenario posits strawberries as ideal data storage due to their octoploid genome, capable of holding vast amounts of information.
✨Exhibition Zine✨
In this imagined world, people consume strawberries to access memories, processed by the gut microbiome. The work includes 3D-printed and fresh strawberries—3D-printed versions symbolize archived data, while fresh berries are accessible for immediate, tactile engagement. Supporting artifacts, like strawberry agar-filled hard drives and data terrariums, illustrate how memories might be preserved, accessed, and regulated.
Memory Berry critiques bio-data commodification through a fictional “Strawberry Act” that establishes strawberries as the primary data repository. This act, enforced by the biotech company BiotechAg, restricts memory access through subscription tiers, from basic weekly memory refreshers to premium, custom-engineered berries. The installation questions bio-data ethics, identity, and memory access, reflecting on the interplay between humans and microbiomes as the next frontier in data processing.
✨Ways to Interact✨
✨Installation Documentation✨
