I N S C T S is an ongoing multimedia project that documents the solutions insect farming offers to global environmental and social challenges. Striving for a global overview, the project focuses on both the people working towards change and those who would benefit from it. Insects may be fed on organic waste, integrating it back into the system as biofertilizers and feed for animals that eat insects in their natural diet. Farming insects could make smallholder farmers less dependent on expensive - and environmentally costly - imported products: a pathway to community sovereignty. Additionally in industrial contexts insect farming is an emerging sector handling the increasing amount of organic waste, with the potential to lessen the environmental impact of the agri-industrial sector. A special chapter is dedicated to “Insectos Por La Paz”, a social initiative created by a young woman: Karol Barragàn Fonseca, that illustrates the change insect farming can promote in the Global South. The photographs were taken in research centers, farms, communities and companies in Europe (The Netherlands, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal), Colombia, Thailand, Malaysia and in the U.S. (California and Texas).
During the shoots I also recorded audio interviews. Suitable for multimedia installations some of these conversations are published as a podcast “Get The Bug” available on all major platforms.
For the next phase of the project, I will travel to a series of countries where insects form part of the local diet. Incorporating archival material, I N S C T S will culminate in a photobook that charts the history of our perceptions of – and relationships with – insects.
