Deep Phytocracy: Feral Songs
2018, video, wall print, artifacts
Deep Phytocracy is an art and research project that takes us on a fabulative expedition to encounter plant life through the gaze of plant-obsessed anarchetypes and their beguiling tools. Anarchetypes are speculative characters created through remix, their stories refracting actual positions on plants taken from various cultural practices such as ecology, forestry, agriculture, ethnobotany, mythology, witchcraft, local traditions, tourism, national politics, economy, industry and so forth. Anarchetypes’ tools are low-tech high-semantic onto-epistemological devices, which lead the participants of expedition to measure, sense and act amongst attractive and repulsive forces exerted by the plant communities, as a way of mapping plant governance. Enveloped in immersive storytelling, exploring the cesspool of relationships with overcoded tools occupies the mind and opens us up to plant enounters outside of logos.
Špela Petrič is a Ljubljana and Amsterdam based new media artist who has been trained in the natural sciences and holds a PhD in biology, currently working as a researcher at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Her artistic practice combines the natural sciences, wet biomedia practices, performance, and critically examines the limits of anthropocentrism via multi-species endeavours. She envisions artistic experiments that enact strange relations to reveal the ontological and epistemological underpinnings of our (bio)technological societies. Her work revolves around the reconstruction and re-appropriation of scientific methodology in the context of cultural phenomena, while working towards an egalitarian and critical discourse between the professional and public spheres. Petrič received several awards, such as the White Aphroid for outstanding artistic achievement (Slovenia), the Bioart and Design Award (Netherlands), and an Award of Distinction at Prix Ars Electronica (Austria).
Špela Petriča
Dziļā fitokrātija: mežonīgās dziesmas2018, video, sienas izdruka, artefakti
Dziļā fitokrātija ir mākslas un pētniecības projekts, kas aizved skatītāju fabulatīvā ekspedījā, kurā ir iespējams sastapties ar augu dzīvi caur skatienu, kas ir apmāts ar augu anarhitipiem un to valdzinošajiem rīkiem. Anarhitipi ir iedomu tēli, kas ir radīti sapludinot stāstus, kuri vēstī reālus uzskatus no dažādu kultūru tradīciju skatapunktiem tādās sfērās kā ekoloģija, mežniecība, agrikultūra, etnobotānika, mitoloģija, maģija, vietējās paražas, tūrisms, nacionālā politika, ekonomika, rūpniecība u.c. Anarhitipu rīki ir vienkāršas, loģiskas onto-epistemoloģiskas ierīces, kas liek ekspedīcijas dalībniekiem mērīt, sajust un darboties starp augu kopienu pievelkošajiem un atgrūdošajiem spēkiem, savā ziņā veidojot augu pašnoteikšanās kartes. Iekļaušanās imersīvajā stāstījumā, atklājot neskaitāmās attiecības ar pārkodētajiem rīkiem, pārņem prātu un atver to, lai sastaptu augus ārpus logosa.
