21_21 DESIGN SIGHT

Where is waste born, and where does it go? What happens to excrement after we flush the toilet? People seldom have regard for the next stage of things that are washed away, or tossed in the trash. As soon as an entity exits our body, though it was part of us until just moment before, we deem it dirty. How did such contemporary notions of waste and excrement become normalized? Was it a good idea to form social infrastructures based on notions of waste and excrement?

Until the end of Japan's Edo Period, in the mid-19 century, most things, not excluding excrement, were in continual circulation. Then modern government arrived, with compartmentalizing public administration and convenience-oriented capitalism. In such a society people were kept in ignorance of the truth of what was happening around them. Such changes took place long ago, but we all now realize the situation they have led us to, with rapid degradation of the global environment. 4.6 billion years of the earth's history have seen tremendous and repeated change, creating seemingly miraculous phenomena. Unraveling these processes through modern science and technology will provide clues to what humanity must now do, and the direction in which we should be going.

When I broached the subject of waste with Shinichi Takemura, who had worked with us on the previous 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT exhibitions "water" and "KOME, the Art of Rice," our conversation immediately turned into the issue of excrement. As a consequence, both the theme and title of this show appeared in tandem.

We are well-aware that circulation is a difficult theme to ponder. That is why we again sought Takemura's help. His positive input is being assisted by many participating creators. We still aren't sure what we will be able to achieve, but we feel we have to try. Environmental matters are so critical that they seem almost unavoidable matters for a design institution to consider. We remain concerned about how to turn such tricky issues into an interesting exhibition. That is yet another challenge imposed on us as we design this exhibition.

Taku Satoh

The history of our planet is the history of living things updating Earth's operating systems. 2.7 billion years ago, cyanobacteria caused a photosynthetic revolution, and the Earth's ecosystem, previously dependent on limited resources from the seabed, suddenly gained access to the inexhaustible energy of the sun. Humanity is now trying to graduate from a life dependent on the heritage of this photosynthetic revolution, through imitating the previous revolution with our immature use of solar panels. Yet can we update Earth's "circulation OS"?

Essentially, there is no such thing as either waste or excrement. In the wildness of nature, dead bodies or animal droppings become resources (food) for other life forms. Yet this perfect circulation was quite recently created through co-evolution of life and its supporting planet. For example, the oxygen indispensable to our respiration was once but the troublesome waste of cyanobacteria photosynthesis. The upgraded economy of life based on recycled oxygen, and oxidization of the atmosphere is the result of incessant "terraforming" by living creatures. Land plants transformed Earth into a green planet. At the beginning of this evolution, fallen trees piled up undissolved, but later became fossil fuel (hence we call it the Carboniferous Period). Then fungi evolved into agents of bio-decomposition. This circulation mechanism by which trees and vegetation turn into soil, was created by fungi in collaboration with various essential workers such as earthworms and termites. This is no more than the story of lifeforms rewriting Earth's OS. Now it is our turn to compose the next part of the story.

Humans are not the only, nor even the first creatures to influence Earth's operation. But we are the first with an awareness that allows us to direct future change.
We are now on a journey to rediscover the "intelligence" represented in the planet's biological systems. We now begin the partnership with the many entities in and around ourselves, besides upgrading our own industrial circular economy.

Earth's history shows that systemic shift occurs when waste - whether oxygen or trees - becomes excessive. Surpluses are reconfigured to enter into some brand-new circulation. Human history also suggests that when people are oppressed by climate change, a "revolution" will ensue, whether in agriculture, urbanism, or science.
Even the "ecology in Edo," famous for its pooploop in a city of one million people, was a creative adaptation to the environmental crisis and resource depletion after the dramatic economic growth in the early Edo-period. It is high time to work out something similar, now on a global scale.

We are the first generation to re-evaluate human civilization in the context of the co-evolution of life and the earth. The exhibition "pooploop" hopes to be a steppingstone toward the co-evolution of humanity and the Earth.

Shinichi Takemura