'aquA(l)formings – interweaving the subaqueous'

Utilising narrative-poetic reflection and backed by artificial intelligence (AI) technology, AquA(l)formings addresses the opportunity for the empathetic interspecies development of relationships with more-than-human entities. It explores the large-scale changes in the marine environment caused by human presence, and tries to imagine how the new conditions (rising sea levels and water temperatures, new chemical composition …) are reflected in its inhabitants. Seas and oceans record such environmental changes in biological or geological time as memories, either within individual organisms or as marked shifts in ecosystem structures.

In the theoretical core of the project, the artists lean on Donna Haraway’s writings, more specifically on her latest texts on tentacular thinking (Tentacular Thinking: Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Chthulucene, e-flux journal # 75, September 2016). Simply put, tentacular thinking is the ability to perceive the world by touching, feeling and experiencing things. Human could use it to gain new knowledge, understanding and experience of the Other and the unknown. In this respect, the authors approach the solving and analysis of issues from different perspectives in the first research phase of the project, e.g. from the point of view of the idea of an all-encompassing disintegration into the next singularity, where the line between our experiences and the Other will no longer be defined. To facilitate the idea of such and similar ideas based on visions from the perspective of unknown futures, the AquA(I)formings project uses AI technology.

In the project, the authors follow the silk-like byssus threads of the noble pen shell (Pinna nobilis) and adopt it as a visual synonym for both the Other and the individual marine inhabitant, who is and still arouses the curiosity of scientific and artistic researchers of marine habitats, seaside residents and ancient merchants. Today, however, the noble pen shell has succumbed to disease caused by environmental change. By including the story of the noble pen shell, the authors also primed the project for research into the use and development of new biological materials that do not interfere invasively with the habitats of selected organisms or their general existence.