What if a school of fish moves into a different nation’s fishing territory? What if penguins are forced to move beyond the latitude of zero winter twilight in Antarctica due to melting sea ice? What are the implications for Quito, Ecuador, if tropical plants move uphill in the high altitudes of the Andes?
Turning the Ecological Gears investigates the repercussions of shifting habitats. Currently, more than 50% of all species on Earth are on the move because of changing climates. This provokes a myriad of implications for both ecosystems and human-made structures, as species not only cross into new habitats but also new geopolitical areas. An ecological momentum of its own has been generated, that evolved out of our history of anthropogenic impact on biological processes.
Investigating the mechanisms of trophic cascades and (eco)system entanglements this exhibition produces tangible visions of possible futures. Feeding on a hybrid dataset of documented species range shifts the project features the „Cascade of Ecological Momentum“ at its core, functioning as a blueprint to cluster the data blocks into story elements to produce the narratives.
The exhibition presents outlooks into future species communities, focusing on six species and their range shifts in geographical, political and socioeconomic dimensions – ecological speculations informed by empirical data presented in short films and hybrid cartographies.
