Nutopia 2011: Nutopia 2011

Nutopia 2011 is a collaboration project between a physicist Tim Byrnes and an artist Kyoko Ebata, started after the Fukushima incident in Japan.

Ebata and Byrnes made a hypothesis to make a nuclear energy power plant in model scale just to the illumination of a small biotope (a sealed environment in a bottle). The purpose of the experiments is to try gain a relation to how we live in the world, making simple power generators and bottle gardens, sometimes inventing ceremonies in the process, documented in photography.

The thematic starting point of the project w
as to think about the way we live in a world with the aid of energy at the same time referring to romanticised landscape. After the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in 2011, there was a sense that the landscape of Japan couldn't be perceived without reference to radioactive material. The energy issue is a very complicated one, and Byrnes and Ebata thought that it might be valuable to think about the energy issue on a smaller scale to see what it offers to a wider understanding of the context of nuclear power after the Fukushima disaster - a process with both subject and objective elements, and an engagement between Ebata's fearful opposition and Byrnes's belief in the potential of new energy.

As the project develops, the discussion between the scientist and the artist itself has come to symbolise relations in the wider world, the process of experimentation itself was emotionally loaded with the aura of the disaster, and as the process developed, ceremonies were added that reflect a willfully subjective approach to human life. Through, their approach trying to conduct the experiment in a “right” way ethically and legally, they try to understand the reality alongside re-acknowledging the difference in the value system and the fact that no right way exists. While Byrnes tries a scientific way, Ebata takes romantic attitude, and calls a impromptu funeral Shrimp Funeral and conducts another one, Melting in Seas of Tears by melting the frozen tears of her own together with the dead shrimp.

In July 2013, "How we Dance in the Wind", a one day show of three artists concerned with how, in the way we relate to them, we can deal with what is troubling about the unknown, undetermined or unseen, was held in a private garden of Ebata in Tokyo curated by Ebata Alasdair Duncan and Ebata, invited Tatsuo Majima. Prototype PROTOTYPE III (ii): HEAT PACK, and PROTOTYPE IV (ii): GLOW STICK were shown together with the photographs was exhibited

http://kyokoebata.com/2013/06/how-we-dance-in-the-wind/
http://www.garden-projects.info/home/garden-projects-1

In August, following the garden show in Tokyo, another group show “Gardening” at a garden of Duncan in London was held with different curation and artist. For this show, “Prototype V: Three devices of class B Radioactive source” were exhibited. Prototype V, in Garden Projects #2 uses light from tritium, a radioactive isotope, sandwiched between solar panels to create electricity which powers several LED lights. We have succeeded to complete the task of setting up a semipermanent device powered by radioactive substance and set up in a sealed environment which represent the earth.

The radioactive substances regulation laws differ in each country. In order to conduct whole process by law, the tritium sticks were purchased in Holland and sent to UK. The device was assembled accordance to “Guidance on the scope of and exemptions from the radioactive substances legislation the UK”, September 2011, Version 1.0 (*1), tritium light sticks used here are categorized as class B which is target of exemption if it is under 1X10(12) bq (non-mobile).

http://www.garden-projects.info/home
http://kyokoebata.com/2013/08/garden-projects-2-31-aug-2013-london/

The process of making the project - planning and making devices and environments, undertaking ceremonies, and documenting these - is one of building close-at-hand meta- phors which we can relate to as stand-ins. By making a metaphoric things to stand in for that which we cannot know, we are able to suture, to stitch up, to close, some of the discomfort of that not-knowing. In the place of the mere gap of the unknown, is placed a sign for that unknown as some- thing knowable as unknown.

*1
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/69357/pb13624-rsl-guidance-110914.pdf

Prototype I

Prototype II

Prototype III

Prototype IV

Funeral I (Shrimp Cocktail)

Ceremony I

1) Place the deceased shrimp in the glass
2) Place the glass together with other empty glasses to form a cocktail tower.
3) Poor alcohol to empty glasses
4) Place candles, incense and flowers
5) Light up the candles and incense
6) Pray
7) Sing any kind of religious song (in my case Ave Maria)
8) Drink alcohol
9) Cremate the shrimps
10) Dig a hole by a tree and place the cremated shrimps
11) Drink alcohol

Funeral I I (Melted in the Sea of Tears)

Collected tears (the ice above contains the tears of the artist)

I kept on making experiments and kept on failing them. So it was quite natural that I had to hold another ceremony. I was easy to cry those days and sometime I cried so much because there were quite a few sad events happened including my mother’s hospitalisation. I thought if I cry so much I should be able to keep the tears in a container to make ice. I think I was influenced by a story on radio that a radio announcer collected his sweat to make salt at home.
その後も沢山の実験や失敗を繰り返し、またお葬式をしなければいけなかった。最近は涙もろくなっていたし、たまたま親が入院したり悲しいことが沢山あった時期で号泣することが多々あり、こんなに泣くなら、涙を溜められるかなと思った。ラジオで自分の汗を塩の結晶にしたアナウンサーの話を聞いたので影響を受けたのかもしれない。

Ceremony II

I. Collect tears into the container when ever tear drops
　　涙を流すたびに、涙を容器に溜める
II. 　Add the collected tears to the ice cube maker together with the deceased shrimps
　　　製氷皿に溜めた涙と死んだエビを入れる
　III. Freeze the ice cube maker
　　　製氷皿を冷蔵庫で凍らせる
　IV. Take the ice out and place in the glasses
　　　グラスに凍らせた氷を入れる
　V. 　Place the glasses together with candles, incense and flowers
　　　ロウソクとお香と花と共にグラスを並べる
　VI. Light up the candles and incense
　　　ロウソクとお香に火を灯す
　VII. Pray
　　　祈りを捧げる
　VIII. Sing any kind of religious song
　　　宗教風の歌を歌う　
　IX. Drink alcohol while the ice is melting
　　　氷が溶ける間、アルコールを飲む

Exhibition View in Tokyo

About the show

http://kyokoebata.com/2013/06/how-we-dance-in-the-wind/

Collaboration with Tasuo Majima and Alasdair Duncan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7XTBsCOD5A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8g01wmZf9I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7JEVuhu_0M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HaAwtNvkXc

Exhibition View in London

Prototype V

The tritium light sticks are actually generating the LED.

http://kyokoebata.com/2013/08/garden-projects-2-31-aug-2013-london/

Brazil nuts are radioactive; needs 10 billion kilograms.

投稿日:01/13/2013 作成者: Kyoko

Tim wrote;

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110925040324AA4K04R

brazil nuts 1,000 to 7,000 pCi/kg of radon-226 and 5,600pCi/kg of potassium-40

bananas 1 pCi/kg of radon-226 and 3,520 pCi/kg of potassium-40

potatoes 1 to 2.5 pCi/kg of radon-226 and 3,400 pCi/kg of potassium-40

DIY Nuclear reactor in US and Sweden

投稿日:01/13/2013 作成者: Kyoko

“Radioactive Boy Scout” 1994

David Charles Hahn (born October 30, 1976), also called the “Radioactive Boy Scout” or the “Nuclear Boy Scout“, is an American who attempted to build a homemade breeder nuclear reactor in 1994, at age 17. A scout in the Boy Scouts of America, Hahn conducted his experiments in secret in a backyard shed at his mother’s house in Commerce Township, Michigan. While his reactor never reached critical mass, Hahn attracted the attention of local police who found radioactive materials in the trunk of his car. His mother’s property was cleaned up by the Environmental Protection Agency ten months later as a Superfund cleanup site. Hahn attained Eagle Scout rank in the Boy Scouts of America shortly after his reactor was dismantled.[1]

While the incident was not widely publicized initially, it became better known following a 1998 Harper’s article by journalist Ken Silverstein. Hahn is also the eponymous subject of Silverstein’s 2004 book, The Radioactive Boy Scout.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn

http://www.hulu.jp/watch/288526#x-0,vepisode,1,1

Swedish man arrested for building nuclear reactor in kitchen, 2011

A Swedish man who kept a blog chronicling his attempts to build a homemade nuclear reactor in his apartment has shut down the project after being arrested by police and held under suspicion of breaching radioactive material safety laws. If convicted of an offence, he faces heavy fines or up to two years in jail.

http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/public-sector/3295333/swedish-man-arrested-for-building-nuclear-reactor-in-kitchen/

http://richardsreactor.blogspot.jp/

↑The bottle of chewing gum sold in 2011 says words of Madam Curie: There is nothing that you should be scared of in your life. All should be understood.

：Th

Tried heating up nails to get the heat and it stank a lot!

Changed to BQ style with cole which seems o all right, at least less smelly.

The power up electronic circuits!

投稿日:01/20/2013 作成者: Kyoko

電子回路パワーアップ！

Now working with a heat pack (ホッカイロ) with an aid of powered up electronic circuits.The lights has been on for half a day now… I wonder how long it is going to go.

I have managed to break it by spilling water when I carried.

A Shrimp Couple and a Tanishi Family
ヤマトヌマエビ的エビのカップルとタニシの家族
投稿日:01/27/2013 作成者: Kyoko

It was full of life and death this weekend.
目まぐるしい週末だった。生と死が入り乱れていた。

We have started to try out with the biotope to go with the nuclear power station and went to buy stuff from a pet shop in Kabukicho.
その日は原発を入れるビオトープを作るべく、ティムと歌舞伎町の地下にあるペットショップに向かった。

There were beautiful waterweed and all these beautiful fish in tank. But it was rather strange to see fish and weed from Brazil or Africa. A bit of a flesh trade that was, like what is going on upstairs in Kabukicho, the biggest red light district in Asia.
美しい水草の間を涼やかに泳ぐ色とりどりの美しい魚たちが、遠くブラジルやアフリカから来ていることを思うと、地上で行われている華やかな人身売買が思い起こされた。

In the end we bought a pair of shrimp which was next to Amano shrimp around 2 cm which we were going to buy initially. The Amano shrimp was bigger than we expected. They all come in a beautiful plastic bags separately, beautifully brown up in a round shape.
結局、最初買おうと思っていたアマノエビの隣の2センチ程のエビのカップルを買うことになった。アマノエビは想像していたよりも大きかったからだ。彼らは美しく丸い形に膨らませた美しいビニール袋に入れられた。

We brought back a couple of Amano shrimp- alike, a couple of shell (Tanishi) and waterweed home: The shrimp and shell happen to be originated in Japan and we were proud of our choice. As soon as we got home, we have added stone from garden and water from the store and little animals to the glass jar.
新宿からアマノエビ的なエビのカップルと、タニシのカップル、それに水草を持ち帰った私たちは、エビとタニシが日本原産であることを発見し、いい買い物をしたと悦に入った。家に帰るとすぐに庭から手頃な石を拾ってきてガラスの瓶に入れ、ペットショップのビニール袋に入っていた水と小さな動物たちを入れた。

We watched for a while and discovered that there are man and woman in these spices. Couldn’t tell which one is which but it was so nice to imagine that the shrimp and shell are on date.
しばらく眺めているうちに、動物たちに性別があることがわかった。どちらが女の子でどちらが男の子かわからなかったけれども、エビとタニシがデートしているところを想像するのは楽しかった。

After a while we have made another discovery that there were baby shells. Apparently, if a shell get pregnant, she keeps her babies inside herself until hard shells are formed and then she releases the babies into water. So the shell was pregnant when we bought her and she was in labour while we were having a drink.
それから瓶の中にタニシの赤ちゃんがいることに気づいた。調べてみると、タニシのお母さんは産後赤ちゃんの殻が固くなるまで自分の殻の中に赤ちゃんを入れておくそうだ。タニシを買った時、お母さんは妊娠中で、私たちがビールを飲んでいる間にお産をしていたということらしい。

It was looking good for a while but after the dinner, we noticed that the shrimp was upside down and moving only a little and the shell was also not climbing the glass as it suppose to be. And the shrimp sunk into the bottom of the jar and hardly moved.
そんな感じで、しばらくはいい感じだったのだが、夕食の後エビが逆さまになって浮いていて、ほんの少ししか動いていず、タニシはタニシでガラスの壁を登ることをやめていた。そのうち、エビは瓶の底に沈んで動くのをやめた。

It might be the stones from my garden, we suspected. The red brick stones in my garden were bought via internet, a pretty ones but cheap. I bought the stones via Internet and we don’t know where the stones come from. Even if it is from Japan, no, if it is from Japan, then might have radioactive stuff (still hard to understand how to say this right) on them, or nobody checks what is going on at the actual site.
We don’t know how it was treated to make them look clean. It should be better if it is toxic, it means less weeds. I rescued the shrimp which was alive with a spoon in a hurry and thinking it would also heart him/her, but better than being in the toxic water.
パニックした私が思いついた原因は庭の石だった。庭の赤い軽石はインターネットで買ったものだった。かわいらしかったけれども安いもので輸入元は不明だ。いや、よくよく考えたら、日本産の石の方がよっぽど、というか非常に怪しいではないか。放射能がついているかもしれないし（難しくていまだに正確な言い方ができない）、手順を現場任せにしているかもしれない。見た目をきれいにしようと何を混ぜたかわかったものじゃない。それこそ、毒性があった方が雑草が生えなくていいではないか。急いでスプーンでエビをすくった。スプーンでエビを傷つけるかもしれないと思ったけれども、毒の水よりはいいだろう。

The shrimp and the shells were the first pet I ever paid money for. I had a cat and birds when I was a child. But the birds flew in from the sky and stood on my arm, and the cat came with my father on a rainy day. I was responsible to look after a bird. One day I forgot to take the birdcage back on winter night. The next morning, the bird was dead, lying on the bottom of golden cage. It was a white Java sparrow with red eyes. The closed eyelids were greyish pink. Since then I swore myself never to keep a pet if I cannot look after. The first pets ever since then were reproduced and was dead soon after in few hours.
エビとタニシはお金を出して買った初めてのペットだった。子供の頃、鳥と猫を飼っていたことがあった。鳥は空から飛んできてわたしの手に乗り、猫は雨の日に父についてきた猫だった。鳥の面倒を見るのは私の担当だった。冬のある日の夜、外気に充てるため外に出しておいた鳥を家の中に入れるのを忘れ、次の日の朝起きてみると、鳥は金色のカゴの下に横たわって死んでいた。白くて赤い目の文鳥だった。閉じたまぶたはネズミがかったピンク色だった。それからちゃんと面倒を見られないなら、ペットを飼わないことにした。エビはその出来事以来の初めてのペットだったのだが、わたしの元に移って数時間で子供を産み、それから死んだ。

On the following day, the other shrimp was dead. We researched the courses and I went to get freshwater from the local shrine, it supposes to be better to use water which has many bacterias. After placing everything back, the shrimp in better condition and the shell family is happy sticking on the glass wall. I am wondering if I should add a new shrimp to make a couple, it might be too crowded in there.
次の日、もう一匹のエビも死んだ。
また色々調べ、今度は近所の神社の境内の池から水を汲んできた。微生物が入っている自然の水の方が良いそうだ。家に帰り、また全てを入れ直した。生き残りのエビはどうやら少しは居心地がいいらしく、タニシの家族もガラスの内側にへばりついて幸せそうに見えた。エビに新しい連れ合いを買ってこようか。それとも瓶の中が混雑してしまうからやめた方がいいか。

Shrimp #5
エビ5号
投稿日:01/29/2013 作成者: Kyoko

In the end, I bought another shrimp. I asked the shopkeeper about the shrimp. The shop keeper said “shrimp is sensitive with water and not good at lack of oxygen. It would be difficult to keep it without air pump. It would be better to keep killifish (medaka) .” But, the how-to for a biotope with shrimps says it is possible. So I have decided to follow the textbook. I placed the duck weed in a separate bucket for a week and changed water a few times hoping that it would wash away the pesticide by now. But I am not sure any more. I bought the shrimp by knowing that I might kill it.
結局もう一匹エビを買うことにした。お店の人に聞いてみると、エビは水質にとても敏感で、酸素がないと育てるのが難しく、ポンプがないとダメだろうとのことで、代わりにメダカを勧められた。でも、ビオトープの作り方にはエビで大丈夫、むしろエビにしなさいとあったので、とりあえず教科書の方を優先することにした。水草も別のバケツに入れて、水も何回も取り替えてあるので、農薬も流れているだろう。でも、もうあまり自信がない。もしかしたら、また殺してしまうかもと思いながら、エビを連れ帰った。

Came home and of course
家に帰ったら
投稿日:01/30/2013 作成者: Kyoko

I think a shrimp is dying. It’s neck is turning into red. I am so so so sorry…
一匹のエビが死にかけていると思う。首のところが赤くなってきている。本当に、本当にごめんなさい。

Oh, no.　
ああ、申し訳ないです
投稿日:01/31/2013 作成者: Kyoko

Yesterday morning, I thought, one of the shrimp was dead. In the end it was lying on the bottom of the jar not moving at all. I was very sad. I was thinking to give a name for a grave. Then I remembered a saying that a scientist does not give a name to an animal for experiments. I now know why.
昨日の朝弱っていると思ったエビは、最後には瓶の底に横たわって、全然動いていなかった。とても悲しかった。お墓を作ってあげるのに、墓石に書く名前が必要だと思った。それから科学者は実験用の動物に名前をつけないという話を思い出した。それがなぜか今ならわかる。

When I got back home, I tried to get the dead shrimp out from the jar but I was too tired so I added the new couple without weeds to the jar so that they won’t die of hunger, and then went to bed.
家に帰り、瓶から死んだエビを取り出そうと思ったが、ひどく疲れていたので、水草なしで別の瓶に入れていたエビのカップルを移した。そうすればとりあえず飢え死にすることはないだろうと。それから寝に行った。

This morning, I checked the jar. Then I couldn’t find the dead shrimp, but instead, I found a shrimp with reddish neck. I am totally puzzled. I called the pet shop, found out the name of the shrimp next to the Numaebi (Amano shrimp), it was mimami numaebi (Southern Amano Shrimp). According to the shopkeeper, Amano Shrimp does change its color into the blue or red. If a shrimp is sick, it also change the color into red.
朝起きてみると、瓶の中には死んだはずのエビがいず、代わりに赤い首のエビが一匹いた。訳がわからなかったので、ペットショップに問い合わせてみた。すると、ヌマエビ（アマノエビのこと）の横のエビはミナミヌマエビという種類だそうだ。ヌマエビは青や赤に変わることがあるという。エビが病気なら赤くなるそうだ。

Oh, no. He/she is suffering. I should hurry and rescue my poor shrimp.
やっぱり、彼、もしくは彼女は苦しんでいたんだ。早く助けないと。

The 2nd Tanishi
タニシ2号
投稿日:02/23/2013 作成者: Kyoko

The 2nd tanishi now has children. Quite a few of them, I think.
The condition of the glass is not that good. Strange web like thing is growing in there.
タニシ２号には子供ができたようだ。結構沢山いる。
だが瓶の環境はあまり良くないようだ。中で蜘蛛の巣状の変なものが育っている。

Shrimp Funeral a la cocktail
シュリンプのお葬式（カクテル風）

All the shrimps were dead again. I am afraid it sounds a bit weird but I wanted to do a little funeral for the shrimps. I realised that I had so much variety for the funeral, Buddhism, Christian, Voodoo, and so many others, as well as Burial or Cremation. Though, I didn’t have enough time to prepare much for this because the shrimps were getting rotten. Decided to improvise with things I could find around my house..
結局エビたちは死んでしまった。ちょっと変だが、ささやかなお葬式をしてあげたくなった。どんなお葬式にするか考えてみると、仏式、キリスト教式、ブードゥーなど知っているだけでも沢山ある。土葬にするか火葬にするかも決めなければならない。でもそのそばからエビはどんどん腐っていくので、早くしなければならなかった。とりあえず、その辺にあるもので何かやってみようかと思った。

It was unusually warm day for February. I set up a trey with incenses, candles, flowers, alcohol. The one glass contained duckweed, the other one contained Campari soda, three glass in the middle contained Sake, and on the top 3 shrimps lied with flower. It represents this life, the next life and purification (oh, I sound mad). Frankly, the incense was necessary, because the “body” smelled. Only religious song I could sing was a catholic song in Latin which I remember from school. I felt very strange but it was necessary and beautiful in a way. And the ritual was in Buddhism I guess because only funeral I attended was Buddhism for my grandparents. I have to admit that it is a bit sick that in the end it turned out as a shrimp cocktail.
２月だというのに暖かい日だった。お香とキャンドル、花とお酒とカクテルグラスをお盆の上に用意した。一つのグラスには水草を、もう一つにはカンパリソーダ、真ん中の３つのグラスには三匹のエビを花と日本酒を一緒に入れた。それらはこの世とあの世と浄化を意味しているつもりだ（キチガイみたいだ）。エビの死体は匂いがきつく、お香は必要だった。それから空で覚えていた宗教的な歌は学校で習ったカソリックのラテン語の歌だったので、とりあえずそれを歌った。なんだか変な感じだったが、それは必要で、美しかった。手順は仏式に近かったと思う。出席したことのあるお葬式は祖父母のものだけだったからだ。シュリンプカクテル式にしてしまったのは流石に悪趣味であることは認める。

The next step was a cremation. I found a leftover charcoal from BBQ so I put the shrimps on top and burned it in the garden. Soon, they smelled rather yummy. I could have eaten as a part of ceremony but I am not that brave or crazy, so I continued to burn them until they were black and to the ash. I have buried them and poured sake over. And the ritual was finished. I was very drank by the end of it. I thought the idea was completely kitschy and damn but it was not too bad in the end. I guess it was the power of rituals.
それから火葬をすることにした。バーベキューの残りの炭があったのでその上にエビをのせ、庭で焼いた。なんだかおいしい匂いがした。葬式の形式として食べることもできるかなと思ったが、そこまでの勇気もなく、狂うこともできなかった。そこでエビが真っ黒になり灰になるまで焼きづづけた。灰を埋め、その上から日本酒を注いだ。儀式が終わった。その頃にはベロベロに酔っ払っていたが、儀式は結構うまくいったと思った。悪趣味でバカバカしかったけれども。儀式の力みたいなものなのかもしれない。