Design Map · Eindhoven
RADIAL – Breed-West, Yield-East
Graduation project by Sabina Scorțanu Iacub at Design Academy Eindhoven, 2026. Shown during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven on Design Map, location F5.
The obscure history of Soviet plant breeding in Moldova between 1950 and 1980 involved the disputed use of radiation to increase sunflower oil yields for the national economy. ‘RADIAL – Breed-West, Yield-East’ revisits the remnants of this history through film, a spoken-and-sung performance, a sonic sculpture and an oil vessel inspired by the ‘GAMMA Field’, a piece of land irradiated by a machine brought to Moldova in 1972 to study the genetic effects of radiation on crops. Like the modern sunflower, the vessel is itself a hybrid, shifting between a residual artefact of Soviet science and a light-emitting clock that follows the sunflower’s heliotropic rhythm of turning towards the sun. The multimedia installation examines the optimisation of living bodies through reproductive control shaped by political ideology and demands for greater productivity. It considers how biotechnology reshapes not only genes but also landscapes and their histories, with effects that become visible long after intervention.