Manchester-based critical think-tank FutureEverything and the Critical Climate Computing (CCC) group at University of the Arts London (UAL) announce the launch of ‘Compost Computer’, a pioneering project that aims to demonstrate how reimagining local internet systems with an environmental focus can reduce carbon emissions.
Inspired by artistic and activist movements in permacomputing, low-TEK, regenerative computing, and digital de-growth, the experimental project will radically transform FutureEverything’s computational system from the soil up. FutureEverything’s server will be powered by compost, offering an alternative to energy intensive web infrastructure controlled by the interests of Big Tech. Their website interface will be built using low-compute code to improve carbon efficiency, while the design will reflect compost lifecycles.
Designed by CCC artists Mariana Marangoni and Shinji Toya, the project blends creative and ecological expertise to develop new technologies that respond to the environmental impacts of computation.
The compost-powered bioreactor will be installed at Manchester community growing site, MUD this summer, ahead of the website launch in September 2025. Guided by Nature’s role on its Board, FutureEverything will explore the more-than-human relations at play in this experiment and will collaborate with Sow the City to study the bioreactor’s impact on composting.
The project also aims to raise awareness about the real material dimensions of technology and support local communities in creating eco-friendly web and energy systems, through public workshops and an open-source digital toolkit containing code and methodologies available on the FutureEverything site.
In developing this project, FutureEverything and CCC have drawn inspiration from, and hope to contribute to, a growing movement of artists, activists and technologists experimenting with permacomputing, low-TEK, regenerative computing, and digital de-growth. These ideas will be taken forward by the CCC team of artists, designers, and researchers as they develop the technology, and explore the relations between computation and the ecological crisis. Developed by CCC artists Mariana Marangoni and Shinji Toya, their combined creative expertise in ecologically-aware computational technologies will shape its direction.
By locating the bio-reactor within the compost at local Manchester community growing site MUD, the project aims to raise awareness about the real material dimensions of technology, explore links between growing and computing and equip local communities to devise their own eco-approaches to web and energy infrastructure.
To achieve this FutureEverything, together with the artists and MUD will facilitate a series of workshops with community gardeners on the bio-reactor site in Platt Fields, Manchester. The workshops will explore both the development and operation of the bio-reactor, as well as the innovative more-than-human web design approaches that accompany it. In addition, an online open access digital toolkit containing code and methodologies will be made available via the FutureEverything website, enabling a global network of web designers, infrastructure engineers, or those interested in green transition computational technologies to replicate and build upon the bioserver approach.
The project culminates in the launch of Compost Computer on FutureEverything’s website in September 2025. The bioreactor will be installed onsite at MUD during the summer with workshops taking place and a full demo happening during September, 2025. Informed by Nature joining FutureEverything’s board, FutureEverything will explore the deeper dimensions and modalities of the human and more-than-human relations at play in this experiment and will work with Manchester based social enterprise, Sow the City, to test the impacts of the bioreactor on the composting process.
“This project sets out to counter the dominant rhetoric of computing as being infinite and dematerial, disconnected from its real-world eco-social impacts – which are unevenly distributed across cultures and geographies. By moving to low carbon, locally situated technologies, literally grounded in earth and permacultural practices we aim to help shift the perceptions and possibilities of technology with the public, culture, and policy. This is the first in a new strand of prototype projects that we are developing at FutureEverything, we are grateful to our collaborators at CCC, MUD, Sow the City, and our microbial kin for making Compost Computer a reality.”
Lucy Rose Sollitt, Creative Director, FutureEverything
“The Critical Climate Computing research group at UAL are delighted to be working with groups such as FutureEverything, Sow The City, and MUD on this project; groups who center critical ecological thinking in their work, at both local scales and beyond. The Compost Computer project embodies what myself and Eva Verhoeven founded the CCC to do: fostering new forms of creative practice that respond critically and urgently to the age of climate crisis.”
Wesley Goatley, co-Founder, Critical Climate Computing UAL.
“MUD have a strong commitment to regenerative practice and circular systems, attempting to produce food with minimal external inputs. We’re really excited to be part of the Compost Computer project and the possibility of harnessing the power of microbial decomposition to create energy. It fits perfectly with our ethos and helps us move towards our goal of being completely self-sustaining in every way. We’re excited to collaborate with Future Everything and UAL to see the many applications this technology could have for small scale agroecological projects” Mike Hodson, Director and Head Grower, MUD
“One of Sow the City’s core aims is to work in partnership with others to achieve the best results for nature. This project addresses a critical need in our current technological landscape, where computational innovation has often prioritised human interests at the expense of nature.” Jon Ross, Founder & Chief Executive, Sow the City
This AHRC-funded project will produce a biomatter reactor powered by compost, in collaboration with Greater Manchester-based community growing collectives Sow The City and MUD. The biomatter reactor powers a low-energy webserver, which will host a newly redesigned website for FutureEverything, a cultural think tank who have committed to embedding more-than-human logics into their organisation, including through appointing Nature to their board of directors. The website will be designed to low-compute logics: an emerging practice of reducing the energy consumption of websites by embedding low-carbon thinking into everyday functions and aesthetics of web design.
The outcome will be a compost-powered website, with every decision in its creation and infrastructure reflecting a commitment to reducing the carbon cost of our digital infrastructures, and encouraging new and non-extractive ways of thinking through and designing everyday systems.
