The virtual or digital world is often seen as an infinite space with endless possibilities. The digital network that carries much of our communication is associated with something intangible, immaterial, and invisible because, in our daily lives, we hardly see its physical elements – from raw materials in the devices we use to the cables in the sea and satellites in space which connect us to the huge data centres that make up the digital cloud. By looking for other ways in which the physical and digital and the natural and artificial relate to each other – or can even fulfil each other’s roles – artists such as James Bridle and Cream on Chrome are experimenting with new relationships between the ‘natural’ world and digital networks and technologies. This can be seen as an attempt to break with the dualistic thinking characteristic of Western society.

STRP Scenario #16: Interspecies Internet explores this ever-increasing entanglement in the network of digital technology, including the Internet, and the natural world. What does an alternative economic system, involving more-than-humans, look like? What can we learn from natural systems of trees that are interconnected, communicate with each other, and distribute nutrients through fungal networks (aka the Wood Wide Web)? Together with co-creator Ayoung Kim, we will investigate how to integrate the datasphere into the natural world. In the form of a hybrid event, we will discuss the extent to which the digital and natural worlds can merge and whether we can strengthen the current biosphere. STRP Scenario #16 will not only take place live in Eindhoven, but also in an underwater world designed by Kim in VRChat. So, you can participate in the metaverse as well!

VRChat manual

To join this STRP Scenario in VRChat, it is required to download the programme and create a user on beforehand. Here you'll find a manual to help you get started!

Location

Online: VRChat & livestream via strp.nl
On-site: Pullman Hotel

Ayoung Kim (KP)
Artist Ayoung Kim adopts the devices of speculative storytelling, narrativity and rhetoric to evoke unfamiliar forms of reading, listening and thinking of the conditions of the world by focusing on unlikely encounters of ideas. Interested in the notions of crossings, transmissions, transnationals, transpositions and reversibility, Kim seeks possible integrations, articulations and collisions of things in between time, space, structure and syntax. The outcomes take the forms of video, voice, sonic fiction, image, diagram and text, and are exposed as exhibitions, performances and publications.

James Bridle (UK)
James Bridle is a writer and artist, with a long-standing interest in technology, fine arts and ecology. His most famous book is ‘New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future’. In 2022, ‘Ways of Being’ will be published. Bridle has written and presented documentary series on art and technology for, among others, BBC Radio.

Cream on Chrome (NL)
The design duo Cream on Chrome consists of designers Martina Huynh and Jonas Althaus. Their work focuses on interactive experiences. In this way, they make researching socio-political issues intuitive and fun.

Soyo Lee (KR)
Soyo Lee is a visual artist and researcher based in Seoul, South Korea. Her works are based on the visual culture of illustrations, models, and specimens from the history of natural science during the modern transition period in Korea. Her works have been shown at venues including the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Seoul Museum of Art, and Nam June Paik Art Center.

Sarah Grant (US)
Sarah Grant is an American media artist and educator based at the Weise7 studio in Berlin. Her practice engages with the electromagnetic spectrum and telecommunication networks as artistic material, social habitat, and political landscape. She develops artworks as educational tools and workshops that demystify computer networking and radio technology.

Ruben Baart is editor-in-chief of Next Nature Network. He operates at the intersection of design, science and technology. As a future optimist, his aim is to take the audience through the wonders of technological progress and believe that, by looking at the world differently, we will have a more humane future.

This programme was made possible by The Arts Council Korea.