Fermentation vs. Fragmentation: Making-with microbes as a regenerative practice

Application summary

Science has proven that the human body is a multiplicity of living entities and identities. Fast travel, online technologies, and mass migrations have made it normal to call many countries “home”. Every day, social media live-streams images of wars and extreme violence from all around the world, which can be watched from the safe distance of our own privilege. This dispersion, at a personal, relational, and societal level, makes us feel fragmented, and as result, even more disconnected from ourselves and our surroundings. How can it be overcome? By building and nurturing relations. Connection-making can only happen through the regeneration of ideas, people, planet, and other notions of life. Regeneration is about composting what we already know and making new sense out of a fragmented world and society. In my art practice, I focus on shifting perspectives with microbes and fermentation as vehicles for societal transformation. I work with speculative models to understand co-dependencies and bridge what's disconnected. My aim is to regenerate human-microbe relations through “making-with microbes”. Following Donna Haraway’s notion of sympoietic, “making-with” is understood as an interface between different viewpoints and disciplines to establish a synergy that spawns new understandings. Each one these three artistic interventions is an unprecedented mix of media, disciplines, and concepts. Through “making-with microbes”, each artwork will reflect on complex issues, including military conflicts, exploitation, and homogenous identities. The specific artworks include: "Invisible Colonies", an essay film reflecting on human-microbial relationships in the context of interplanetary colonization; "The world in a pickle", a podcast mini-series on ferments and people from conflict zones; and "Inside-view effect", a VR experience that immerses the viewer into the diversity of the inner-microbial world.