Narco Cultivos

Drug trafficking is a major world problem, and one of the main countries involved in this violence and trade in Mexico. A 2015 Congressional Research Service report estimates at least 80,000 people were killed in Mexico due to organised crime-related incidents since 2006. Most organised crime relies on drug trafficking.

There are many things involved in drug traffic, even though it is all about money and power, it is also about connections, who works for whom, how many people are involved, what amount of land they “own”, etc. In this case, power to drug dealers is food for physarum polycephalum.

Narco Cultivos is a metaphor and a way of analysing how primitive this business can be, compared to physarum polycephalum. I call it primitive for they “think” but they also act as an instinct. Little by little important cities are attacked in a 3D printed version of Mexico where physarum polycephalum lies. How this organism reacts to more or less food gives us an insight into what would happen with power, control, drug movement or even people if drug cartels were to be attacked.