A Recipe for Soil
Research project (2015)
Royal Botanical Gardens, UK

Under EU policy soil is a non-renewable resource, and according to many scientists there are only 50 harvests of soil left in some parts of the world. Something & Son’s residency at the Royal Botanical Gardens has led them to talk with some of the worlds leading scientists at Kew about soil and in doing so learn that soil is one of the most complex substances on earth, and essential for the planet and human’s survival.

Working from a soil kitchen-come-lab in the Princess of Wales Conservatory, Something & Son explored what soil really is by attempting to make it artificially from scratch. They will copy and accelerate the complex systems that take place in nature, using hacked together machines. Part genuine experiment, part satire, the artists are prepared to fail in their attempt to create a substance so complex that we’re only beginning to understand it.