Kapitän Biopunk: Fermentation Madness

Kapitän Biopunk: Fermentation Madness.

© 2012 Julian Abraham. Photo © 2012 Selina Anna Shah.

Kapitän Biopunk: Fermentation Madness is an artistic research project manifested via a series of workshops and an acoustic and performative installation. The artist developed the project in response to the high number of poisonings and deaths of alcohol consumers after an increased excise tax was placed on alcoholic products in Indonesia. The project, using do-it-yourself and open-source technologies, strives to educate individuals on fermentation processes to produce safe and affordable alcoholic products, and a means to democratize the laboratory and liberate knowledge for a wider society.

In the installation, fermenting tanks filled with exotic fruit juice and yeast cultures are mediated with audio microphones. The audio draws attention to the fermentation process, permitting the audience to listen to the sound of fermentation, as yeast transforms sugar into ethanol and CO2. The sounds generated change in relation to various factors: temperature, sugar level, types of fruit, quantity of yeast, light intensity, and container volume.

Julian Abraham is a media artist, musician, programmer, amateur scientist, and social researcher. Words like manipulating, decomposing, degenerating, and dematerializing are often used to describe his work. Connecting one thing to another, expressed in complex algorithms, helped him understand how art, the environment, science, and technology relate to one another - providing new tools to educate and engage both himself and society into a wiser, richer, and more independent existence in a world of creation and annihilation. From 2006 until 2011, Abraham dedicated his life to The House of Natural Fiber, a media artist collective based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. He has produced and organized numerous festivals, workshops, exhibitions, performances, and concerts.