Artistic research in breeding : The Bifrost Eucalyptus project

Jens Staal

About this exposition

Genetic signs of domestication of plants and animals date as far back as the oldest known evidence for other artistic expressions like painting, music and sculpture. Breeding is often seen as a science or a craft and is rarely considered art. The Bifrost art project aims to combine the spectacular bark and growth rate of the rainbow gum Eucalyptus deglupta with the cold hardiness of the cider gum Eucalyptus gunnii and possibly other cold-hardy species. The cold hardiness introgression should make it possible to grow amazing rainbow-colored trees in a European or North American climate. The project has been initiated and is expected to continue for decades or centuries in a distributed, participatory, manner. The project explores breeding as an art form, and through extension landscape and ecosystem manipulations that may last beyond the time when human kind has driven itself to its extinction. The project also questions commonly held beliefs about “pristine” and “natural” as being better than “artificial” and “anthropogenic”.

type	research exposition
keywords	interdisciplinary, horticulture, genetics, tree, collaborative processes, evolutionary physiology, aesthetic experience, generations, land art
date	25/09/2017
published	09/11/2019
last modified	09/11/2019
status	published
share status	public
affiliation	Ghent University
copyright	Jens Staal
license	CC BY-SA
language	English
url	https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/392580/392581
doi	https://doi.org/10.22501/rc.392580
published in	Research Catalogue

id	name	copyright	license
412611	gunnii_merelbeke_winter	Jens Staal	All rights reserved
412667	bifrost_breeding	Jens Staal	All rights reserved
562542	gunnii_merelbeke-2nd_winter	Jens Staal	All rights reserved
562545	mini_greenhouse_Euc_seeds	Jens Staal	All rights reserved
562546	seedlings_2_weeks	Jens Staal	All rights reserved

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Artistic research in breeding : The Bifrost Eucalyptus project (2019)

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