The first IoLT prototype emerged from our research into electroculture: a century-old agricultural practice that uses antennas to channel atmospheric electricity into the soil to stimulate plant growth. Inspired by permaculture principles and the experiments of Justin Christofleau, the prototype was built from found materials....
For thousands of years, humans have raised vertical structures—totems, stelae, obelisks, sacred poles: to mark a place, tell a story, or forge a connection between the earth and the sky. These monuments embodied memory, myth, and meaning, serving as both signal and symbol.
In the modern era, the antenna became our new totem: a technological pillar transmitting invisible signals across the airwaves. Like its ancestors, it reaches skyward to communicate beyond the horizon: though now in binary pulses instead of carved glyphs.
IoLT’s electroculture antennas inhabit both worlds. They are technological totems, grounded in soil yet reaching into the atmosphere, carrying both electronic circuitry and living plants. They connect earth and sky, energy and growth, history and speculation.
Electroculture occupies a space between science, folklore, and speculation. While its agricultural claims remain contested, IoLT treats this uncertainty as fertile ground.
We ask:
Our approach is critical making—where experimentation is both technical and poetic, where failure is simply a stage of growth, and where every component tells a story of its previous life.
