PIKSEL

SEMINAR.EXHIBITION.HAPPENING.

Perma/Soils invites you to discover how communities from Asia, Latin America, and the North (un)save their soils — through a vibrant program including a seminar, an exhibition, and a happening at the Piksel Festival.

What can the taste of an oyster possibly tell us about the health of a forest? Why on earth do we call it “data mining” — and what is it really mining at all? So, how are other cultures actually healing their soils — and what can we learn from them?

Developed in collaboration with the University of Oslo and based on the Anthropogenic Soils research project, this seminar brings together artists, architects, and researchers to explore how soils—living, stratified, and deeply interconnected—link ecology, technology, and culture.

Soils are archives of care and pollution, witnesses to both human damage and resilience. Through interdisciplinary perspectives, our speakers reveal how the infrastructures that underpin our digital lives are built on the same extractive logics that deplete our land.

Seminar

From agricultural runoff and algae blooms (Ewen Chardronnet) to migration and belonging in Punjab’s soils (Dr. Davina Kaur Patel); from fermentation as ecological healing (Maya Minder) to the architectures of data extraction and storage (Marina Otero Verzier), Perma/Soils maps the porous boundaries between soil and system, nature and network.

The seminar also pays tribute to Shigeatsu Hatakeyama (1943–2024) — oyster farmer, environmentalist, and author of “The Forest in Love with the Sea.” His life’s work reminds us that the vitality of marine life begins inland, in the forests and rivers that feed the sea.

Happening

A seaweed and oyster tasting happening at the festival’s opening day will kick off this reflection through flavor, celebrating the symbiosis between ecosystems, species, and human sensibilities.

Exhibition

At Studio 207, the Perma/Soils exhibition brings together works that explore the entanglements of soil, ecosystems, and technology: Cecilia Jonsson investigates the historic Litlabø pyrite mines and their severe water contamination; sorlar4Rain (NSA Collective, Maite Cajaraville & Gisle Froysland) connects two distant ecological systems in a solar-powered sci-fi narrative of renewable energy exchange; Marina Otero Verzier presents her installation Compost Computacional, recently awarded a Special Mention at the S+T+ARTS Prize 2025, critically examining the environmental cost of digital infrastructures; and the Norwegian premiere of Umi No Oya (ウミノヲヤ) – The Mother of the Sea by Maya Minder & Ewen Chardronnet traces the legacy of British phycologist Kathleen Drew-Baker and her discovery of red algae life cycles, which transformed nori cultivation in postwar Japan.

Perma/Soils places living soil at the heart of our ecological and digital imagination, asking us how we can restore balance, from the soil to the sea, from matter to data. Join us in Bergen. Let’s get to work! Let’s reflect on our roots.

25.piksel.no | November 20–23 | PIKSEL 25 – Perma/Soils