PERISTREFEIN

Peristrefein

In her essay on tentacular thinking, Donna Haraway explains the importance and necessity for humans to understand how Human Exceptionalism is a concept that became unthinkable for the best sciences both natural and social. Moreover, analyzing different thinkers that study the concept of multispecies, she lays the groundwork for an interconnected world able to survive in the remains and for a partial Terran reconstitution. Other scholars such as Brad Werner describe our capitalism as a system that made it so easy and barrier-free to destroy and exploit nature that our earth-human system is incredibly fragile.

As an artist, my aim with this installation is to communicate these ideas in a more direct and emotional way. Not necessarily giving a definitive answer or solution, but placing the viewer in a position of questioning our relationship with nature while seeking new ways of connection.

It is a multimedia installation that uses different mediums: video, performance, and photography to take the viewer on a journey of reflection and self-reflection on the human relationship with nature.

Peristrefein comes from ancient Greek; it’s a navigation term, and it means to switch direction. As a matter of fact, this installation wants to trigger the viewer to see a possible new direction opposed to the one we are following right now.

The first part of the installation is composed of two videos which both show our current situation in late capitalism. The first one is metaphorical; it takes inspiration from the Greek myth of Icarus to express our crazy run towards destruction. The second video is composed of a collage of humans and nature interacting. It shows the exploitation of nature but also its fetishization. Both videos share the same sound: which is a collection of human overwork and overrush in a big metropolis like London, captured with a mic to enhance the loud vibrations of the city. Both videos aim to show how unsustainable our relationship with nature is.

The second part of the installation is a liminal space that aims to inspire new perspectives in the viewer; it is a space for reflecting, a space to stop and think. The piece is composed of a photobook which was created searching for interesting places where nature and humanity intersect, the pictures were created searching for points of contact, and the intention is for the viewer to see these connections and imagine new ones. For this part of the installation, the sound was created by DJ and producer Akii who in her new LP - MESH - also explores this difficult relationship.

“Art can allow us to glimpse beings that exist beyond or between our normal categories.” - Timothy Morton

Influenced by Timothy Morton's work, "The Ecological Thought," akïi's latest album, titled "Mesh," serves as an auditory exploration of the uncanny and strange familiarity that emerges when delving into the interconnectedness with our environment.

Taking inspiration from Morton's concept of the ecological mesh—a complex web interconnecting all entities—akïi's album weaves together contrasting elements within the sonic landscape. The voice, a central component, exists in two distinct states: at times, words are indecipherable and aggressively cut up, creating an unexpected strangeness; while at other moments, angelic voices evoke a sense of familiarity, tapping into our natural human instinct to understand speech.

This intentional duality mirrors the coexistence of meaning and unmeaning within the ecological mesh, where voices become a medium of constant evolution and dynamic interchange.

The album further explores the malleability of ecological thinking through the juxtaposition of these two vocal states. In line with Morton's concept of the mesh, which signifies a network interconnecting everything without a distinct background, the voices act as instruments, seamlessly flowing between chaos and order, front and back, illustrating the fluid nature of ecological relationships.

Time, a key element in Morton's ecological philosophy, is artfully expressed in the album. A steady beat, imposing and constant at times, signifies the interconnectedness of entities, while at other moments, it flows like waves, traversing the sonic landscape from front to back. This rhythmic exploration embodies the temporal dimension of ecological thought, capturing the ever-shifting dynamics within the mesh of interconnected existence.