As one among in the present day’s visionary artists working on the vibrant intersection of artwork, science and new expertise, the Paris-based German-Scottish artist-researcher Dana-Fiona Armour dives into the chances of sustainable symbiosis between species by way of her interdisciplinary works. Shifting in between severe scientific knowledge and the fantastical, Armour crafts immersive multimedia narrations which have a sci-fi feel and appear but make actual scientific data accessible and fascinating, inviting audiences to discover hypothetical futures. Her progressive sculptures and installations make the most of distinctive supplies and strategies to assist us confront these imagined situations. By her apply, Armour turns into an interpreter between humankind and different dwelling beings, aiming to dissolve the boundaries between matter and species, envisioning new types of symbiosis and addressing society’s harmful alienation from nature.
Just lately, Armour acquired the 2024 Sigg Artwork Prize, a brand new award redefining the boundaries of inventive creation by specializing in modern artwork that comes with synthetic intelligence. The prize is awarded primarily based on a number of standards—expertise integration, innovation and inventive influence, together with components like engagement with social points and variety illustration—and each entry receives a rigorous assessment by a committee that this yr included acclaimed curator Nicolas Bourriaud; Joseph Fowler, head of artwork and tradition on the World Financial Discussion board; thinker and author Anna Longo; curator and artwork critic Dominique Moulon; NFT and digital artwork collector Seedphrase; Sorbonne professor Antonio Somaini; unbiased curator Anne Stenn; and Gediminas Urbonas, director of MIT’s Artwork, Tradition and Know-how program. Notably, A.I. additionally had a say within the assessment course of, analyzing inventive initiatives textually and visually by way of machine studying fashions and laptop imaginative and prescient.
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Observer not too long ago caught up with the artist to debate her successful work: Alvinella Ophis, a multidisciplinary 3D animated video set up on the crossroads of biotechnology, synthetic intelligence and modern artwork. Set in a dystopian desert created by a catastrophic ecological catastrophe, Armour’s sole surviving inhabitant is a hybrid species—the Alvinella Ophis—a fusion of a snake and the Pompeii worm, a marine creature recognized for its tolerance of maximum warmth. With the theme “Future Desert,” Armour imagines a post-human world the place our species has vanished, leaving solely this resilient hybrid creature to endure. “I imagined a dystopia, with a desert, the place, resulting from local weather change, the warmth grew to become so sturdy that humanity hasn’t survived, and there may be solely this tremendous warmth resistant creature that may sense the prey together with her python’s pit by way of infrared radiation,” Armour advised us.
Designed as an interactive set up, guests are remodeled into potential prey for this monstrous but sensually charming creature as they have interaction with the work. Infrared sensors detect the viewers’ thermal presence, mimicking the heat-sensing talents of the python. Built-in A.I. processes the dwell knowledge, changing it into dynamic visible responses, whereas a quadrophonic soundscape envelops these within the room, making a surreal and all-encompassing atmosphere. As Armour put it, “The viewer is subsumed right into a surrealist dystopian future desert, the place reflections and emergent kinds evoke an otherworldly presence.”
By a classy orchestration of technological inputs, symbolic narratives and multisensory responses, Armour creates a strong and immersive metaphoric expertise that challenges guests to rethink evolution and humanity’s position in a non-anthropocentric world. By positioning guests as potential prey for this imaginatively terrifying creature, the set up disrupts human-centered views, prompting a reevaluation of humanity’s significance inside a broader ecological net of interdependence, stressed transformation and adaptation.
Armour’s snake-worm hybrid additionally serves as a potent image of evolutionary resilience. Citing Charles Darwin’s groundbreaking On the Origin of Species (1859), Armour mirrored that it’s “not the strongest of the species that survives, nor probably the most clever, however the one most responsive to alter.” Working inside a fancy technological and conceptual framework, her set up is grounded in precise scientific knowledge, the results of Armour’s collaboration with herpetologists, biotechnologists and A.I. engineers, which allowed her to delve into the genetic and physiological nuances of potential hybrid species.
Armour advised Observer that the thought for this creature emerged each from research of probably the most resilient species able to surviving excessive future situations and from her lifelong fascination with snakes. “I’ve all the time been very fascinated by worms and snakes,” she mentioned. “My first companion animal was an earthworm once I was three years outdated, and later, I actually obtained into snakes. I by no means obtained afraid of this type of animal. I used to be all the time fascinated.”
Snakes steadily reappear in Armour’s work, together with different amphibious hybrids, in kinds starting from swirling, translucent blown-glass sculptures to digitally elaborated two-dimensional futuristic pictures. These symbolic references are deeply anchored in artwork historical past and the wealthy cultural associations surrounding this creature throughout varied civilizations. From Historical Greece to pre-Columbian cultures and Australian Aboriginal traditions, snakes have held distinctive medical and non secular roles in therapeutic—solely to have their picture distorted towards sin and hazard with the rise of Christianity. “Within the temple subsequent to Athens, Askelepyum healed his sufferers with snakes, and he was dwelling in concord with snakes on this hospital,” she defined. “The Christian faith someway reversed this position, however scientific knowledge show their extraordinary evolutionary resilience.”
The combination of A.I. in Alvinella Ophis provides a layer of complexity to the dialogue about ongoing human evolution, significantly relating to the enlargement of our thought capabilities. Armour emphasised that, all through the programming course of, her mind and artistic intelligence directed the machine’s output, even because it processed knowledge independently. “The undertaking itself is created solely in my mind,” she mentioned. “I made it with the analysis, so I nonetheless assume this isn’t an A.I. undertaking. It’s a collaboration. It’s going to be activated with A.I., however I programmed it.” In contrast to many artists, Armour doesn’t see A.I. as a menace however quite as an empowering device—a further medium that artists can use to touch upon the state of civilization and the world round us.
Right here, as in her earlier works, Armour masterfully creates highly effective visualizations of potential evolutionary paths and future situations by merging scientific analysis, vivid creativeness and a classy use of supplies and expertise. “I’m attempting to get artwork and science collectively as disciplines that equally observe nature regardless of totally different views,” she concluded. “Possibly from these research, there may be an fascinating scientific consequence as effectively, however this isn’t my goal. The way in which artists assume may be very totally different from scientists, however that’s why artwork might help them envision a brand new approach to consider and strategy particular phenomena.”
The position of artists is to not present definitive solutions however to pose questions that enable us to ascertain and take a look at potential options to our present actuality, and the intensely vivid and fantastical situations in Armour’s work do exactly that. They invite viewers to confront the scientific realities of our time in a approach that’s each significant and provocative, prompting a essential, if uncomfortable, exploration of the connection between humanity and nature.
