Entanglaculture, 2022

At the heart of Entanglaculture, is the idea that everything connects. We see these connections from the communities of microbes living inside and on the body to the meteorological weather systems of El Niño and La Niña bridging continents. Once we see the entangles between things, they inspire us to imagine ‘other ways of being’. As a result, Entanglaculture follows fascinations found in the natural world to give alternatives to what it is to be human. We created a ‘Becoming’ to underpin the works. This manifesto of sorts features in a blog post found here.


Becoming

The pieces feature fungi, flora, fauna, cycles of nutrients, and weather systems. They propose equal, long-sighted and symbiotic connections with the non-human world. The artworks create artefacts, experiences, tools, and stories. These include entanglements in four worlds:

We first developed Entanglaculture with a focus on food. This was for an exhibition at the Royal Botanical Gardens Kew, London. The first iteration of the work drew on the saying “you are what you eat”. We found this a useful lens to explore the interconnections we live within.  Although the work started with food, we now develop Entanglaculture to imagine changes in far-ranging contexts.

As part of the exhibition at Kew, we engaged visitors with a performance using our Entanglaculture divination system. Subsequently, we developed and expanded upon this which can be found in a forthcoming publication. (Sign-up to our newsletter for release updates.)


During the Anthropocene, we find the fate of life on Earth entangles with human identity, cultural expression, stories, and the design of our world. We discover it is time to change us, not the environment. How can we gain new perspectives of who we could be?

Through Entanglaculture, can we imagine different stories, artefacts, tools, and future systems that shape other ways to be, when we discover our place beyond the human world?

 

Human Biome

Tangles between humans and other beings


Dandelion Bladder

The dandelion interrupts us to see the world anew. No longer a weed, but a clock counting from end times in reverse. The many names of the cankerwort, blowball, swine snout, mark its prevalence found widely, but belie its magnificence. The lion’s tooth is a master of adaptation and survivor of hostile worlds. Like the Hydra, cut it down, and it doubles with a cloning ability. The Bearnan Bride calls to lost spirits. Tea made from its roots lifts the veil to see hidden dimensions of this world and evokes spirits from the memories of the land. The piss-a-bed, puffball, priest’s crown flushes the body and links us back into lands of divination.

Entanglaculture Human Biome

 

Forest Fields

Tangles between hidden worlds and their organisms


Kodama Rope

Where once scarecrows stood in the fields, new structures create symbiotic growing systems to prosper many lifeforms. They are called Kodama Ropes. Their forms rise from the ground amongst rich tapestries of plants. They express deep and diverse views of the future.  The Kodama Ropes create habitats and biodiversity inside them. They form bridges for the imagination to other dimensions and unseen beings. 

The structures anchor and embed us into the environment. 

Entanglaculture Forest Fields

 

Land to Sea

Tangles across biomes and time

Land and sea connect in exchanges across borders. A seabird called the cormorant stands at the intersection between air, land, and underwater realms. In human worlds, some perceive this bird as a bringer of death and depletion of fish, or in the past, as a carrier of messages from the dead. Others consider this bird as a source to create plenty and a symbol of indulgence. The cormorant, like other birds, entangle in strange human histories. In times of food production limitations we hungered for their guano in a gold rush. Its poo was prized in an explosion of human expansion. In the past, wars, markets and populations bloomed. However, there was no respect or thanks for the bird. Friend turned to foe.

Beyond human realms, the bird is just doing its thing. Now we stand at a crossroads, where we see webs of beings where each element has a right of its own to be.


Overview of the Land to Sea

 


Cormorant Attractor

 

 

Extreme Environments

Tangles between organisms and meteorological systems


Instruments for Shiitake Mushroom

Seek the mushroom after lightning cracks the heavy skies and storms pound the land. Here you’ll find the visible elements of a hidden fungal being. From the darkness of decay, soil, wood and humus, the shiitake fungus influences the sky to bring forth clouds and electric strikes. The fungi delight in their dance between the below and the above. The fungus may exist out of sight, but they churn the vastness of the atmosphere. They do this through their spores, that seed clouds and other fungal bodies after touching back down to Earth. Here we gift you an instrument to play in your turbulent dance so we can also delight in your dynamic overture and underture which we savour in ears, on lips and in guts.

Entanglaculture Extreme Environments

 

 

Acknowledgement

Entanglaculture by Burton Nitta (Michael Burton and Michiko Nitta)

Supported by RGB Kew

 

 

See also



 

<< Back to home