britta & rebecca : drink.pee.drink.pee.drink.pee
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Events and Exhibitions

  • Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria, September 2009.

  • DIY Kits at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, April 2009.

  • Urine to Fertilizer Public Reaction: Expel at the Asia Song Society, 45 Canal St. NY, April 2009.
    We transformed pee into fertlizer at this event at the ASS gallery. See the photos below and the video here.

  • The Change You Want to See Gallery, Brooklyn, 2009.
    The artists invited the public to take part in a user test of the Urine to Fertilizer Kits, and to join in discussing the wider implications of DIY science and bio-art. View a video from the event here.

  • A+C Gallery Criteria exhibition, Chicago, 2009.
  • ETech, March 2008.

  • Venice Biennale, Venice, 2008.

  • Eyebeam's Feedback exhibition, New York, 2008.


Photos from our most recent event: Public Reaction at the Expel Series at ASS Gallery. April 2009. The gorgeous installation of plants and photographs in the background of some of these photos is the work of 0. Zhang and Peter Garfield.

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Britta gives visitors pee and beer cups when they arrive. Visitors drink beer and then, when they're ready, bring their pee to be processed. They test the pH of their urine. They smell their urine as part of the observation process.
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People reported their urine smelled like wheat, coriander, flowers, and the subway, among other smells. They record their pH level and smell.    
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Britta or Rebecca then add urease, the enzyme that performs the first part of the fertilizer reaction. Only a tiny amount of urease, which is derived from jack beans, is added to each cup. The urine sits for a half hour and then the pH and smell is measured and recorded again. Everyone's pee smells much worse now, after the urease has started breaking down the urea.
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When their pee reaches the correct pH, participants add it to the vat of urine.    
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The vat is ready for the next step. Britta and Rebecca prepare to add Magnesium Chloride. Magnesium Chloride bonds to the nitrogen and phosphorus, and most of the pharmaceuticals, in the urine. The reaction is dramatic.
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The glass gets hot as the reaction causes the struvite (fertilizer) to separate from the liquid.   We then filter the solid fertilizer from the liquid. Partipipants were able to take a small amount of concentrated fertilizer home for their houseplants.
     

 

video from the event >
         
more work by britta and rebecca >