CHUTHULUsCENE is an artistic exploration of the book Staying with the Trouble-Making Kin in the Chthulucene by Donna Haraway. Focused on the complex relationship between organisms, humanity and humusity, and our role within this entangled world, CHUTHULUsCENE explores various biomes, each reflecting on different aspects of Haraway’s philosophy as expressed within the book.

In this project 67 different virtual biomes can be discovered, each interlinked with one another to create an entangled digital world. Understanding biomes/nature/everything as entangled is key to Haraway’s thought(?) in which humans are no longer presumed opposed to nature but recognised as being within nature.

‘SF’, or ‘string figures’ are an important metaphor within Staying with the Trouble to explain that everything impacts something, which in turn impacts another. By exploring CHUTHULUsCENE, visitors walk through different worlds existing in each other, and within these worlds, there are buttons that, when clicked, change the visitor’s digital environment. Not only does this change the environment of the individual visitor, but of all visitors, entangling everyone in a virtual labyrinth of ‘string figures’.

Whilst visitors are able to consider the philosophy of Staying with the Trouble, CHTHULUsCENE is also intended as a meditative space as visitors can lose themselves flying through a maze of biomes.

To make CHTHULUsCENE accessible to everyone, it is taking place in the open-source software "Mozilla hubs". Rather than creating an exclusive space for those who possess VR glasses, the space can also be accessed using a phone or computer. Digital technologies are becoming increasingly important in education. CHTHULUsCENE could be used as a destination for a virtual class trip focused on stimulating dialogue about the environment, mycelium, holobiont and the micro-biome of humans.

Try it out yourself!

Exhibited
CIVA 2021

CHUTHULUsCENE is an artistic exploration of the book Staying with the Trouble-Making Kin in the Chthulucene by Donna Haraway. Focused on the complex relationship between organisms, humanity and humusity, and our role within this entangled world, CHUTHULUsCENE explores various biomes, each reflecting on different aspects of Haraway’s philosophy as expressed within the book.

In this project 67 different virtual biomes can be discovered, each interlinked with one another to create an entangled digital world. Understanding biomes/nature/everything as entangled is key to Haraway’s thought(?) in which humans are no longer presumed opposed to nature but recognised as being within nature.

‘SF’, or ‘string figures’ are an important metaphor within Staying with the Trouble to explain that everything impacts something, which in turn impacts another. By exploring CHUTHULUsCENE, visitors walk through different worlds existing in each other, and within these worlds, there are buttons that, when clicked, change the visitor’s digital environment. Not only does this change the environment of the individual visitor, but of all visitors, entangling everyone in a virtual labyrinth of ‘string figures’.

Whilst visitors are able to consider the philosophy of Staying with the Trouble, CHTHULUsCENE is also intended as a meditative space as visitors can lose themselves flying through a maze of biomes.

To make CHTHULUsCENE accessible to everyone, it is taking place in the open-source software "Mozilla hubs". Rather than creating an exclusive space for those who possess VR glasses, the space can also be accessed using a phone or computer. Digital technologies are becoming increasingly important in education. CHTHULUsCENE could be used as a destination for a virtual class trip focused on stimulating dialogue about the environment, mycelium, holobiont and the micro-biome of humans.

Try it out yourself!

Exhibited
CIVA 2021