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somme (QC - CA)

MYCOCENE (2019)​

INTERNATIONAL DIGITAL ART FESTIVAL

OBORO

JUNE 12 - 15, 2019 

FREE ENTRANCE

BIO - somme

The collective ​somme​ is a collaboration between Emma Forgues, Sam Bourgault, Owen Coolidge, Matthew Halpenny and Matthew Salaciak.

 

They began working together during their degree in Computation Arts at Concordia University, sharing similar points of view but various skills among the group. Coming from diverse backgrounds, they conjugate programming, sound, visual arts, electronics, music, physics, and biology in their collaborative art practice.

Their current interests gravitate around notions of the Anthropocene as their critical foundation, which involves human-technology interactions, media archeology, and digital materiality. They employ kinetic installations, interactive experiences, and speculative performances to express their thoughts and feelings vis-à-vis their technological reality.

MYCOCENE

Mycocene​ is a speculative future. It symbolizes a transition away from the Anthropocene towards a future where our current use of technology is composted into one that has symbiosis in mind.

 

Symbiosis within the ​Mycocene​ blurs the line between conventional technology and nature. It explores uses of technology that do not attempt to save nor exploit our ecosystems, but augment and communicate with them. Mycelium is the communication highway between species, it is an integral link within ecosystems, functioning like an internet of nutrients.

 

In the spirit of this metaphor, the ​Mycocene​ project will repurpose electronic waste to be in symbiosis with this highly advanced natural system of mycelium–foregrounding the immense intelligence that nature exhibits which, as a species, we (humans) choose to ignore.

Technology is part of our collective identity, we do not have to stop using technology as a species to help the Earth survive. Instead, we need to change how we create and view our technology to benefit all species on a global level.

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