like a ray in search of its mirror
A mixed-reality art project by Sylvia Eckermann and Gerald Nestler
20-28 April 2024 exhibition
Forum Frohner / donaufestival
Minoritenpl. 4
3500 Krems an der Donau
Perfomance 19 April, 18:00 CET
Click here for the livestream
Immersed in planetary matter a new world is unfolding.
Can you already feel the ecstatic sensation of alien copresence?
Like a Ray in Search of its Mirror is about the emergence of a new understanding of interconnectedness.
Alienation has become almost planetary. Humans act like «aliens» in vital environments that are increasingly hostile to life due to our impact. Not least for this reason, we recognize how entangled natural and life processes are. This dichotomy cannot be overcome without a new world view. How else could we transform our often abstract and complex insights into concrete and lived reality?
We – diverse species, compositions, and compounds – come together from different strata, continents, and ecosystems to trace emotions and forms of appreciation that encourage more-than-human awareness and ecological solidarity. As a more-than-human association, we activate sensing and sense-making as modes of resolution to explore the resourceful and ambivalent potency of our myriad ecological, cultural, and technological relationships.
Among our voices are plants, fungi, microbes, animals, inorganic and synthetic matter, technologies, tools, and humans: Giuliana Furci [live from Santiago de Chile] delves into the subterranean networks of mycelium ecosystems. Fahim Amir pursues unruly politics of human-animal relations. The becoming wild of Waldrapp birds is traced by Gordan Savičić and Felix Stalder. Maggie Roberts - 0rphan Drift [live from London] contemplates the nine brains of the octopus and its wildly alien sensing. Martina De Dominicis and Alberto Cissello - debocs perform sensations of touch. Agostino Nickl’s neural network constellations mirror our collective imagery. Yuka Takahashi [live from Columbus] performs her point cloud body. Thomas Nail [live from Denver] reconsiders the motion and swerve of matter. Daniela Gandorfer [live from London] speculates on more-than-human governance. A different sense of planetary space and inhabitability is imagined by Patricia Reed. Soulcat E-Phife, Volkmar Klien and Wientaler Dreigesang compose our sonic atmosphere. Marian Kaiser takes up threads to weave a tapestry from all our artistic-discursive encounters. And the audience can take part at Forum Frohner and/or online.
The mixed-reality art project is composed of different beings, materials, and media. Manifesting the complexity and significance of the concept of the cosmos, Sylvia Eckermann‘s installation consists of organic matter whose patterns are found in nature in a wide variety of forms and applications, from microorganisms, mycelia, leaf veins and insect wings to nervous tissues and network structures to cosmic supernovae.
Like a Ray in Search of its Mirror aims for an artistic-ecological practice that embraces reciprocal alienation as concrete reality, for out of conflict arises the potential for symbiotic affiliations that afford our re-entanglementwith planetary matter and its animate world.
The virtual as an osmotic skin
The artistic interplay of Like a Ray in Search of its Mirror is based on a techno-ecological format that re-orients the conception and aesthetics of virtual reality: while conventional VR and metaverse projects are invested in artificial 3D worlds and reality simulation, we recast the virtual as osmotic skin to connect physical and virtual spaces. Hence, the virtual becomes a membrane through which people and other beings can interact, talk, and perform with each other from wherever they are. This immersive live experience is technically realized by Markus Passecker [head of XR production], Marek Šimoník [point cloud live sharing], Michael Loizenbauer [livestream], Alexander Weber [camera], Daniel Hüttler[assistance and set photography] and Bela Eckermann [constructions].