Artist Paul Chaney talks about his time updating the FieldMachine programme to work for Goonhilly Downs:
“Two screen grabs from the FieldMachine – which has been programmed with crops that may (or may not) be possible to grow on the Downs with some immediate treatment of the soil. Potato, oats, winter squash, blueberries and cranberries. Plants that can possibly survive the acidic conditions of the moorland soils, but which would be devastated by drought in a fickle moment.
The smaller unit is a vegetarian diet. The larger conforms to the average meat consumption of somewhere much further down the Easterly line from here. The Low Tatras and into Ukrainian Carpathia perhaps. Dexters, Reds, or Highland cattle wintered out on the moor and folded at night. Browsing on the fresh growth of Erica vagans after controlled burnings.
The FieldMachine has not yet been calibrated for the low-yields expected from such inhospitable soils.
The Forestry Commission’s futile efforts to establish a fir plantation at Croft Pascoe does not bode well.”
On the day of The Gathering, come and find the FieldMachine in the Battery store, on the Earth station next to the car park. Put in your requirements for survival and see what space, crops, animals and building materials you need to get by…
GOONHILLY VILLAGE GREEN 