Grow Finish Unit (near Elkhart, Kansas), 2008
Realtime 3D projection, 4.5m x 6m
'Grow Finish Unit (near Elkhart, Kansas) 2008' is an
intricately detailed virtual representation of a large pig
production facility in the Great Southern Plains region
of the United States.
Its appearance documents a horrifyingly functional
agricultural reality and illustrates both a contemporary
denial of animal dignity and the reduction of contract
between farmer and farmed to a purely technical,
almost contactless process. A viewer-controlled camera
permits oversight by the work's audience. Circling the
scene at their command, it unflinchingly surveys vast
lakes of excrementsparkling in the sun while squat
computer-controlled silos relentlessly pump nitrogen-
derived corn feed.
The finish of the title is represented by a 6-8 month
orbit of exchange in the work – a fleet of trucks will
arrive at some designed but unscripted point to silently
remove and replace the occupants. As in life, a blazing
sun relentlessly circles in a 12-month orbit of its own.
Production: Werner Poetzelberger. Modelling: Daniel
Fellsner. Programming: Helmut Bressler. Presentation
design / Corian fabrication: Jakob Illera / Inseq,
Vienna.
