Coffee MAchine

Coffee is the most popular drink in the world. Only water is more popular than coffee. 2.25 billion cups of aroma beverage are consumed every day. Consumption boom has its effects.

Special climate - subtropical and equatorial - is required for coffee to grow. The same climate that rainforests are located in. Every year coffee plantations area increases as many as 100.000 ha. Consequently, rainforests are removed from nearly the same area. After a few years of coffee production this soil becomes exhausted. The groundwater level drops and water becomes polluted with fertilizers. This process is called deforestation. With every consumed cup we decrease biodiversity, accelerate climate change and mutate our bodies.

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Coffee Machine — artwork that illustrates underlying principles off coffee industry as well as its ambiguity. There are reservoirs with brewed coffee. The installation is driven by real-time data about forests loss. This information triggers a valve opening. One hectare of forest is lost, one drop of coffee falls. The drops fall on the preheated electric stove. The coffee is hissing and dancing on that stove, making a noise. 4 microphones pick up that noise and send it on 4 speakers, located at the corners of the room. The volume is on the edge from pleasurable to disturbing sound. This is how we remove boundaries between pleasure and payoff. Such a flow chosen for a special reason: coffee brewing is the second most destructive (after cultivation) process in the industry.