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Symbionic Affairs
Sonia Kujawa
Complex relationships of humans and living matter, the elusive border between cooperation and exploitation
Humans and other living beings create an interconnected system of relationships, each having its unique essence and implications.
The slightest changes in the network accumulate over time and morph the bigger picture, often completely changing its dynamic. The bond between humans and nature is a tumultuous one, marked by chaotic force rather than kind and loving cooperation, although as with all extremes, the line between them is often vague and blurry.
Symbionic Affairs tries to gauge the moment when collaboration becomes exploitation. To find the equilibrium between these two, it acknowledges the brute force behind progress while appreciating its eerily captivating byproduct.
Insertae Sedis (enigmatic taxa)
Charlotte Roschka
A new evolutionary self-assembling creature
This sculpture, inspired by the functionalities of DNA origami, investigates the process of DNA self-assembly to a stable arrangement that ensures the preservation of information against environmental factors.
Preserved DNA can serve as a memory of an already functioning building plan, which is necessary for more complex entities to evolve. The sculpture was designed by a machine learning model trained on genes and images of organisms’ body structures.
The work invites speculation on evolution development within an entanglement of DNA and new technologies, encouraging the imagination of characteristics and habitat of undefined taxa.
Code or Chrysalis
Laura Leppert
What parts of us are readable?
Code or Chrysalis is a film based on research about the imaginaries, obsessions, and amnesias surrounding DNA, often dubbed the Code of Life.
It looks into science histories and fiction, theaters of knowledge, and the afterlives of scientific metaphors spurred by the information age.
The film follows DNA through labs, decryption hypes, and historical theaters of knowledge.
What parts of us are readable – in so-called books of life or in today’s black boxes?
an act of arriving (or becoming visible)
Hendrik Klatte, Jonathan Joosten
Exploring a cybernetic ecosystem of fungi and minerals by sound synthesis
An object-based multimedia installation exploring a cybernetic ecosystem.
Observation of relations and connections between fungi and minerals, mycelium and sound synthesis, through the objects that are being collected, placed and interconnected in the rigid grid of a former type case.
The artists seek for similarities, synergies and contradictions: sprouting sounds created by synthesizers and feedback loops form an ever-changing nested polyphony inspired by mycelium.
By combining material and the immaterial, the work establishes questions on embodiment of a network and the human desire for collecting.
Ganoderma lucidum (Reishi)
Calcium Carbonat (Aragonit, Iron Flower)
Metallicum, var. (Synthesizers, Cables)
Fagus sylvatica (Type Case)
