_Nomadic Plants_ is a research project resulting from the situation of some rivers that have been contaminated by large amounts of industrial and domestic waste, which turns the water into a center of infection affecting communities and ecosystems.

The project not only highlights but also seeks to analyze how we manage the waste we generate and how we can convert it into nutrients and energy in order to improve the quality of the water in rivers.

This research project takes the form of a new species that operates as an antibody to keep an ecosystem in balance. It consists of an autonomous robot that lives in symbiosis with microorganisms and native plants. This species, developed to transform waste into electricity, oxygen, clean water, nutrients and life, can survive on the banks of polluted rivers.

The metabolic cycle of the _Nomadic Plant_ starts when it finds contaminated water. It sucks up the liquid and carries it to a set of microbial fuel cells. These cells accelerate the biodegradation processes to clean the water that feeds the wetlands, where plants grow along with bacteria, providing power to the electronic system. The circuits monitor and keep the ecosystem in balance, while another group of photovoltaic cells feed the robot’s locomotion system. Once it has accumulated enough energy, the body wakes up and sets off in search of food. When pollution levels in the water are higher, the _Nomadic Plant_ expresses itself through sound.

Links: www.plantasnomadas.com

Supported by Second Prize, Vida 13.0 de Fundaciíb Telefonica; Fundación / Colección Jumex; Fundación Bancomer; Universidad de Guanajuato Campus Irapuato – Salamanca; support Program Production and Research in Art and Media 2009, Centro Multimedia, Centro Nacional de las Artes; Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes; LABoral, Centro de arte y creación industrial; Centro Párrag; Laboratorio de Arte Alameda

Gilberto Esparza (MX), born 1975, has a BFA from the University of Guanajuato and an MFA from the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain. He has been artist in residence in the New Media Research Center in Mexico City and the Noordkaap project space in of Dordrecht, The Netherlands. His work is an inquiry into the effects of technology on social relations and economic phenomena as well as their impact on the environment and the urban structure. It is linked to an ongoing research process into alternative types of energy. His practice employs recycling consumer technology on a path between the analog and the digital.