Pickles & Concrete

Pickles & Concrete is an ongoing experimental time-negotiating kitchen laboratory that contrasts two human attempts to alter the flow of time. In the kitchen we freeze, dehydrate and pickle foods to remove them from their usual cycle of decay. In contrast, we freeze and thaw concrete to simulate the passage of entire seasons in a single day. Pickles & Concrete invites players to get tangled up in the time scales between food preservation, building materials, bacteria and geology

1. Cementation/Bioreactor Clocks
Cementation Reactor for growing bioconcrete with Sporasarcina Pasteurii.
• Sporasarcina Pasteurii (S. pasteurii) is a bacteria that can make calcium carbonate under the right conditions. This is a similar process to how seashells are made and which leads to the sedimentary formation of limestone.
• The S. pasteurii is grown in 44 mL of food grade yeast extract and Urea growth medium innoculated into 100 mL of silica sand wrapped in a geotextile form. The two forms in the cementation reactor are surrounded by a cementation media that includes Urea, Calcium Chloride, Ammonium Chloride, food grade Yeast Extract and Sodium Bicarbonate. You can find more detailed information in the lab notes.
Lacto-fermenting carrots or cabbage.
• Lacto-fermentation uses the naturally occurring Lactobaccilus bacteria on and in fruits and vegetables and the creation of an anaerobic (without oxygen) environment, by placing the fruits under water to make sour pickles.



2. Sounding Swift Tower
• Time scaled soundscape in fragment of a chimney swift tower. The chimney swift, as its name suggests, primarily occupies human architecture. Previously dwellers of tree cavities, deforestation and the prevalence of starlings have reduced their non-human roosting and nesting options.
• This style of chimney swift tower is built in 3 4’ sections that can be stacked to create a 12’ tower usually on a few feet of steel legs. Here a 4’ section becomes an invitation to consider a time scaled soundscape that extends and compresses a series of sounds to imagine a bacterial soundscape, both of biocementation and fermentation.



3. Squid/Clock Clocks
Belmnitella americana fossil.

• The Belmnitella americana was an ancient cephalopod, relative to the ancestors of todays squids. This fossil is from New Jersey. The carbon from a specific Belmnitella fossil found in the Pee Dee River in South Carolina was used to determine the 0 value for the delta scale used in relative isotope-ratio measurements of carbon. Measuring changing ratios of Carbon12 and Carbon13 isotopes can also help us understand the ratio of carbon in the atmosphere to that in the ocean. The Belmnitella biomineralized the calcium carbonate through a similar process to how S. pasteurii makes bioconcrete. Further reading: The Global Carbon Cycle by David Archer
Quartz Wall Clock
• A frequency reference is at the core of every clock. A pendulum completes a swing once a second, a quartz crystal (silicone dioxide) cut into a tiny tuning fork, vibrates 32,768 times per second. The quartz crystal is piezoelectric and so not only vibrates but also produces an electrical charge, which drives the clock hands more accurately than a pendulum.



4. Pingle Poncrete Table
• The Pingle Pongrete table is a prototype for a Soil Formation Factor calculator. Based on Dokuchaev’s five soil forming factors: parent material, climate, biota, topography, and time. Pingle Pongrete invites players to take on the role of time (in the form of a ping pong round) interrupted by a collection of interlocking wheels that relate to parent material, topography (terrain/relief/aspect), biota (living beings) and climate, alongside the wild card addition of movers. The player’s role as time is amplified by contact mics and delay pedals that extend the sound of the ping pong ball on the table in time.
Cart 1: Bioconcrete making supplies
• Food Grade: Yeast Extract, Calcium Chloride, Ammonium Chloride, and Sodium Bicarbonate, missing: Lab Grade Urea & Sporosarcina pasteurii; Silica Sand (pool filter); Biochar; Brix Blend Rock Dust; Grate for 1st version of cementation reactor; Timer; Induction burner; Pot; Bacillus thuringiensis (for fungus gnat remediation)


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5. Accelerator/Decelerator Clocks
Accelerator/Decelerator: Freezer

• This freezer both slows biological time and accelerates geological time. The apple slices are cold enough to freeze most bacterial activity. The bioconcrete sample experiences an accelerated winter. In engineering this is called Freeze/Thaw testing and is a means of simulating the effects of cold winters and hot summers on concrete.
Accelerator/Decelerator: Dehydrator- See Solar Dehydrator

Cart 2: Pickle Making Supplies
• Scale; Jars; Fermenting crock; Sugar; Salt; Cheesecloth; Box grater; Cutting board; Knife; Spring water; Measuring cups & spoons; Funnels; Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz; Coriander; Turmeric; Cumin; Spice grinder; Sandwich bags; Fermentation weights



6. Jack Beans/Canivalia ensiformis
• The Jack Bean contains a great deal of urease, an enzyme that in the presence of Urea can create calcium carbonate and be used to bind together aggregate into bioconcrete.

7. Solar Dehydrator
• The dehydrator accelerates geological time and slows biological time. The bioconcrete in the dehydrator experiences an accelerated summer. The apple slices are dehydrated and the reduced water content makes it difficult for bacteria to grow.