Marc Lee: Used to Be My Home Too
Curator. Swissnex: San Francisco. October - November 2022
Swiss artist Marc Lee’s digital installation Used to Be My Home Too utilizes Google Earth as a platform to share biodiversity observations posted by citizen scientists around the world to the social network and mobile application iNaturalist. iNaturalist was recently acquired by the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and has a growing community of millions of naturalist explorers from around the world. Through this format, the efforts of these naturalists genuinely make a difference in understanding the diversity of life and how to sustain it through the unfolding climate crisis.
Marc Lee explains how his project engages audiences in a discussion about “how we humans have become biodiverse agents interacting with the most fundamental processes of our Earth.” He continues, “In this experiment, you fly via Google Earth continuously to the exact locations where animal, fungus and plant observations are being photographed in real time and sent to iNaturalist.org." In addition, taxonomically similar species that occurred in the same country and are endangered or became extinct within the last 30 years are automatically added from the RedList.org. Established in 1964, the Switzerland-based International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species has evolved to become the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global extinction risk status of animal, fungus and plant species.
About Marc Lee
Marc Lee is a Swiss artist whose practice spans interactive installations, media art, internet projects, performance, video, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mobile applications. His work critically engages with the structures, possibilities, and limits of our information society, inviting audiences to reflect on the impact of technology on communication, perception, and daily life.
Lee’s projects have been exhibited internationally in museums and new media contexts, including ZKM Karlsruhe, New Museum New York, Transmediale Berlin, Ars Electronica Linz, HEK Basel, and Fotomuseum Winterthur. He has taught and lectured on digital art at institutions such as the China Academy of Art (CAA) Hangzhou, Strelka Moscow, and ZHdK Zurich. His work has received numerous awards, including prizes at Transmediale Berlin and Phaenomenale Wolfsburg, and is held in major public and private collections, including the Swiss Confederation Federal Art Collection, HEK Basel, Fotomuseum Winterthur, and ZKM Karlsruhe.