Martian Weed and Pest Utility Research

As humanity seeks to transform Mars from an inhospitable place of certain death to a planet people will feel at home on, we will need to carefully manage the Martian ecosystem. This will necessarily be a multicultural undertaking. China, India, and Russia all have Mars missions planned. The United Arab Emirates is designing a city of over 600,000 to be built on Mars. Unlike Antarctica where most visitors are scientists and food is imported, Mars will be populated by families. Time, distance, gravity and the severe demands on Earth’s overstressed biosphere dictate that Martians will need to grow their own food.

As the massive logistic and technical hurdles challenging our presence on Mars are worked out, the process of cultural selection and design has already begun. Martian Tea believes open-minded cooperation and understanding will be paramount to survival on Mars. We propose that future Martian thinking can impact our present life on Earth.

The Martian Tea research team has observed that Sweden is often held up as a positive example of how government can serve a population. Universal healthcare and lengthy paternity leave are commonly referenced. However, even idyllic Sweden is not without problems.

In the United States, it’s easy to buy snacks made with cricket flour. Insect-based foods are not yet as common as Starbucks coffee, yet they are readily available. In Sweden, on the other hand, it is currently illegal to sell insect-based foods. Lack of sufficient medical studies is held up as a rationale, yet insects are a large and important part of many non-Swedish diets. Many areas in Sweden are overrun with protein-rich slugs, yet they are wasted.

Martian Tea wishes to simultaneously learn from Sweden’s progressive policies while challenging its irrational conservatism. Even in the most optimistic scenarios Martians will likely face situations similar to that of so many unfortunate Swedish farmers who find their crops plagued by slugs. How can they be stopped? How can they be eaten? Should selling slug-flour muffins really be illegal?
Erik Sanner
USA

Martian Neighborhood Hyllie

Martian Neighborhood Hyllie

At the center of most European villages is a church or a castle. In Hyllie, the first structure was the spaceship. The hotels, malls, condos and office buildings came later ... More Information
Collaborative Possibilities

Collaborative Possibilities

A workshop can be anything. Modes of communication and expression do not need to be predetermined. Silence, speech, listening, thought, action… Our phones are pocket television studios, our movements can ... More Information
Crafting Freedom: Framework for Cosmopolitan Food Legislation

Crafting Freedom: Framework for Cosmopolitan Food Legislation

Friday 21, Saturday 22, Sunday 23 July
13:00 – 14:00 Join Erik Sanner at his Mars Crater for a conversation about food legislation. Insects are eaten in many cultures around ... More Information
Elevating the Swedish Palate into Extraterrestrial Situations

Elevating the Swedish Palate into Extraterrestrial Situations

Friday 13 July Saturday 15 July, Sunday 15 July
13:00 – 14:00 Erik Sanner invites you to a conversation at his installation Martian Weed and Pest Utility Research. Cultural identity ... More Information
Collaborative Possibilities with Erik Sanner

Collaborative Possibilities with Erik Sanner

Saturday 1 July and Sunday 2 July, 2017
13:00 – 15:00 We need to cooperate in order to survive. On Earth, on Mars, on the Moon, on a space station, ... More Information
Agrikultura Launch Day

Agrikultura Launch Day

1 July, 2017
11:00 – 18:00 Kulturföreningen Triennal is delighted to announce that Agrikultura, an exhibition of public artworks, installations, meals, performances, urban interventions, mobile kitchens, and events to take ... More Information
Are tea plants innately slug-resistant?

Are tea plants innately slug-resistant?

An Alaskan gardener suggests using coffee grounds as slug repellent, as slugs apparently hate caffeine.
A Swedish farm already grows tea, and they sell tea seedlings.
As part of our ... More Information