P.O.M.

POM (Pollinator & Orchard Management) POM is an agricultural technology that encourages flies to be more efficient pollinators. Flies are already inadvertent pollinators, playing a major role in this within cities, and in total, accounting for about 30% of all pollination. POM works by emitting pheromones from a device to lure groups of flies at timed intervals. With multiple nodes, fly movement patterns can be manipulated so that their behavior can be organized. Giving us the ability to ensure both efficient pollination and fruit harvests in the future. — www.flypollination.com RCA Press write up: www.rca.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/rca-bio-design-using-flies-pollinate-fields-could-transform-agriculture/ — This was a supporting video to our Bio Design Challenge entry, it was the winning RCA (Royal College of Art, London) entry, and will be presented at the BioDesign Challenge Summit, MOMA, New York, at the end of June 2017. See more info about the challenge here: www.biodesignchallenge.org — Project by: Louis Alderson-Bythell Greg Orrom Swan Tashia Tucker

POM proposes alternative methods of interacting with nature: a dialogue with the nonhuman world rather than an assertion of control. The project is a commentary on the future of food, and how we as a biological species take from, and give back to, our biological surroundings.

We drew inspiration from existing forms of inter-species communication, and created a speculative product to aid pollination in arable farming, where almost 75% of output benefits in some way from pollinating insects. Yet bee pollinators have a hard time today, thanks to factors relating to intensive farming and climate change. In the USA, commercial bee populations are moved for thousands of miles to pollinate certain crops, and pollination services can account for over 1/10 of farm costs.

POM's solution is to call flies into service as targeted crop pollinators, by releasing pheromones from strategically-placed nodes in a farm. The pheromones guide them towards the nectar of the crops rather than their usual forage diet; meanwhile, the nodes also monitor the pollination rate and environmental data, and help farmers understand likely fruiting schedules. In this way, POM reduces agriculture's reliance on bees and allows farmers to be more flexible in a changing world.

For the exhibition I 3D printed a sample 'node' which was exhibited on a flowering lemon tree; I also built an enclosure around the ensemble, which contained a small population of flies. Alongside this, a VR experience and a number of prototypes helped further invoke this future world of high-tech farming.

POM was a finalist at the 2017 Biodesign Challenge held at MoMA in New York, where it was the runner-up to the Intrexon Agriculture award.

Following the Biodesign Challenge, the team and I took the concept forward and successfully pitched for start-up funding at the InnovationRCA incubator. I decided to leave POM in late 2017 but the team has continued developing the company as an agricultural tech start-up. In early 2018, POM changed its name to 'Olombria'.