Symbiosis/Dysbiosis Iteration 1.2 2020-2022
People often view -nature- as something outside of themselves; nature is over there, in a forest, or nature is the weather. Humans require clean air, clean water, and clean food to thrive and survive, as do most oxygen-breathing life on Earth. Earth. Humans come from the Earth; therefore, they are a part of this incredible organism. However, centuries of Western religious views have sought to remove humans from the natural world, position humankind as "man-kind" and remove it from nature, from being an animal.
Being Human is a collection, an entanglement of organisms that make up the whole, a Holobiont.
Fungi are a significant aspect of our human entanglement.
Working with neuroscientists, microbiologists, mycologists, physicists, ecologists alongside Unity coders, and VR technologists we developed an environment depicting the invisible entanglements taking place between ourselves and the shared environment.
The multi-species muddle. Everything is connected.
The experience begins deep within Canadian forest regions. Visitors are gradually drawn within the microbial forest.
The closer their personal biometric data aligns with the living fungal biodata the microbial connections grow more visible, the further they travel within the mycelium network.
April thru December 2020 Tosca Terán was invited to participate in The Goethe-Institute's New Nature Climate Science Exchange between Germany, Canada, Mexico and the US. Curated by Samara Chadwick. A group of 27 scientists, artists and technologists were invited to present artistic proposals that envisioned a “new nature” post-pandemic.
Tosca’s proposal: Symbiosis/Dysbiosis is shortlisted and awarded The New Nature R&D support ($27,000)
From 2021 to 2022, Tosca became an invited GEM Coalesce Artist in Residence at the University of Buffalo. GEM: Genome, Environment and Microbiome Community of Excellence. During her residency at the Coalesce Centre of Biological Art, Tosca worked with scientists in Confocal, SEM and Atomic Force Microscopy.
Tosca's research and artistic output have focused on human connections with the shared environment through observing living fungal mycelium biodata streams. Her VR work utilizes sensors that can augment conscious awareness, such as human brainwaves, olfactory senses, touch, and sound.
Photogrammetry captures, Alison Moore and Tosca Terán
Ensure video volume is up. Music derived from fungal mycelium with field recordings.