Bioasis
Year: 2023
Medium: multimedia installation; video, audio, diegetic prototypes

Bioasis is a collaborative project between the Center for Investigative Journalism (CIJ) and LCC’s Supra Systems Studio (SSS). Merging speculative fiction strategies with a critical approach to the UK environmental policies, Bioasis imagines a future UK in 2075 through a bio lab that produces Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) from palm tree segments. Narrating through three characters, the work is attempting to investigate climate justice and the politics of techno-fix, meanwhile raising the question: utopia for who and dystopia for who?

The UK government introduced Jet Zero strategy to achieve net zero aviation by 2050. The goal is to develop and implement new technologies, fuels, and operational measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from air travel. A number of stakeholders consider that the best approach to supporting the decarbonisation of the aviation sector is via investment in Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF). However, instead of systematic changes, Jet Zero strategy relies heavily on unproven or nonexistent technologies and and the plan has been questioned and criticised as unrealistic by experts.

Drawing on the data of the Center for Investigative Journalism (CIJ), Bioasis explores a near-future world in the UK after Jet Zero has failed where the government still holds on to this mindset and prioritises economic growth. The story is told across media, including 3D animated video, audio and diegetic prototypes. The video shows the inside view of a factory where SAF is produced, which sets the scene for the speculated world where a new technology to produce SAF has just been proposed by a bio lab and the government sees it as a lifesaver to meet its emission targets. The audios are the monologues of three different characters (politician, primary school teacher, immigrant worker) who at some point have been to the factory shown in the video. The diegetic prototypes are a physical invitation for the audience to explore and piece together this future world.

The project critiques the politics of techno-fix by bringing in different perspectives to provoke questions about the complexity and entanglement of different parts of the society.

Bioasis is a collaboration between Han Bao, Hannah Leng, Jo Xiong, Yuanyuan Li and myself.

LU DENG