Messages to a post human earth

"Not everything everywhere
is for us"

– Stanislaw Lem 
‘The Invincible’

Messages to a Post Human Earth is an interactive, multi-sensorial journey for two people to do together. You and your partner will embark on an evocative audio journey featuring augmented reality (AR), to reimagine your relationship with the natural world.

DESCRIPTION

The story explores the work of Monica Gagliano and an essay by science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem, which he wrote for the Human Interference Task Force in the 1980s. Lem’s essay was written in response to a request for ideas of what to do with nuclear waste and its incredibly long life span; he suggested encoding messages into the DNA of plants. Gagliano is well known for her research into plant intelligence and the behaviours that demonstrate memory by the Mimosa plant.

Designed for two people to experience together, you will be provided with a special device and props before being sent off to explore the natural world; a hearing, living thing, sensorially alert like you. 

You and your partner’s short journeys are different but will work in synchronicity with the other. Like a symbolic choreography, both of your actions become a performance for the other. 

Invisible to the naked eye, the audio narration and AR content comes to life to invite musing on the living environment and a future world in which humans will no longer be present. 

WHEN IS IT ON?

Messages to a Post Human Earth is back this year at the grounds of St George’s Gardens in Bloomsbury.

Presented by Wellcome Collection from 21 - 24, July 2022, admission is free.

*FULLY BOOKED* Join waiting list here

CREDITS - 2021

Creative Director and Scriptwriter: May Abdalla
CG Artist: Barry Gene Murphy 
Web Developer / Graphic Designer: Will Brady
Developer: Shu-yang Chia
Developer: Jack Ratcliffe
Illustrator: Antonis Papamichael
Animator: Toby Auberg
Generalist: Leon Denise
Sound Designer / Composer: Chu-Li Shewring
Sound Designer / Composer: Sami El-Enany
Producer: Anetta Jones 
Producer: Amaya Dent
Producer / Executive Producer: Kirsty Jennings 
Communications Manager: Elaine Hsu
Trailer: Alice Russell
Production Assistant: Sahar Bano Malik
Production Assistant: Angus Denton
Production Assistant: Leonardo Lami
Production Assistant: Selene Mazon
Creative Technologist (installation): Gavin Morris
Creative Concept Development: Barry Gene Murphy
Concept Development: Mike Golembewski
Creative Consultant: Amy Rose

 

Messages to a Post Human Earth is a new work by Anagram, Commissioned by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Poland, in collaboration with IDFA DocLab R&D Program in Amsterdam. Original concept development by Mike Golembewski.

With special thanks to Monica Gagliano, Research Associate Professor in Evolutionary Ecology at the Biological Intelligence (BI) Lab, Southern Cross University.


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