Virtual reality for chickens and lab-grown meat are among the many eye-catching installations at a new free exhibition at Science Gallery Dublin about the future of farming.
Field Test: Radical Adventures in Future Farming explores searching questions around how we might produce food and carry out agriculture in years to come.
The exhibition, which was launched today, brings together scientists, farmers, inventors and artists to consider what the farm of tomorrow might look like.
Among the exhibits is an interactive pig and human virtual game to keep pigs from getting bored.
There’s also a domestic bioreactor in which insect meat will be grown during the course of the exhibition.
Second Livestock is one scientist’s tongue-in-beak proposal to make battery chickens think they are free range through the use of miniature virtual reality headsets.
There’s also a collection of robotic bees, which it’s suggested could be used in future for tasks like pollination.
Building bricks made from mushrooms, an aqualab that turns fish, poo and plants into food and an image classification system for honey bees – labelled Tinder for Bees – are among some of the other items on show.
“FIELD TEST will give visitors an immersive experience that will explode their preconceptions about the art and science of farming, provoking some essential questions about the complex decisions we will need to make about land use and production in the future,” said Lynn Scarff, Director of Science Gallery Dublin.
The exhibition opens to the public tomorrow.
