Shellreader is the 2nd chapter of the Making New Land series. Based on expeditions in coastal ecosystems, the project Making New Land explores the moving boundaries between artificiality and nature, and the permeability between controlled environments and wilderness though the lens of eco-fiction.

In this chapter, key texts of political ecology are encoded in artificial Seashells using a process of 3D encryption. 

The Shellreader is a fictional interface reading the forms of these shell-texts using an AI form recognition software.

The project is inspired by the science of sclerochronology, the analysis of sea shell rings in which climate data is embedded. 

The project interface was prototyped while in residency at the Laboratoire Modulaire as part of the Species Without Spaces residency project. 

Studio Intern: Kamil Izaret.

Research Assistant: Vikram Pradhan.