Synthetic Ecology
Beijing Art and Technology Biennale (BATB)
September 22, 2022 - January 31, 2023
Participants (in alphabetical order):
Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, Anna Dumitriu & Alex May, Carla Chan, Entangled Others (Sofia Crespo and Feileacan McCormick), Xiang Jing, Neri Oxman and The Mediated Matter Group, Oron Catts & Ionat Zurr, Patricia Piccinini, Ralf Baecker, Rasa Smite & Raitis Smits, Rimini Protokoll, Liang Shaoji, Sophie Falkeis, Špela Petrič, Susan Schuppli, Suzanne Anker, Terike Haapoja, Terra0, Ursula Biemann, Art of Bio Machine, Climate Clock
Curators:
Xiaowen Chen, Naiyi Wang
Academic Advisors (in alphabetical order):
Giovanni Aloi, Yuhui Jiang, Yuk Hui, ZHANG Ga
The inaugural Beijing Art and Technology Biennale (BATB) takes place from September 22, 2022 to January 31, 2023. With its theme Synthetic Ecology, this inaugural edition is curated by Xiaowen Chen and Naiyi Wang.
Ecological degradation, global warming, climate change, and the limits to growth...these consequences tell us that the earth is not an entity that can be idly subject to human whims. In the age of accelerationism, a time of continuous technological development and expanding self-awareness, humans have realised the necessity of coexistence (entanglement) with animals, plants, and matter. When British scientist James Lovelock first proposed the Gaia hypothesis in the 1970s—envisaging the earth as a super-organism—it ushered in a new way of understanding life that considers the earth as an “alive” entity, able to self-regulate and maintain the stability and continuity of living systems.
The earth is an ecosystem, of which we are entangled in overlapping ecologies of nature, society, and spirit. The paradigm of the Enlightenment has obscured ecology to allow us to believe that it is supposedly untouched and undeveloped; abandoned of all references to actual nature. This is what British philosopher and ecologist Timothy Morton calls “hyperobjects” or “Ecology without Nature.” The loss of the natural dimension of ecology has given rise to a special way of thinking, allowing us overhaul opposing concepts in dualism (culture/nature, subject/object, human/non-human), to further explore technoscience and naturecultures that are more-than-human.
This first edition of the Beijing Art and Technology Biennale (BATB), titled Synthetic Ecology, aims to explore the entanglement of life in symbiontics. As a metaphor, “synthetic” probes the possibilities of reconfiguring nature by examining the post-human ecological imagination, forming a new ontological approach to equality. This concept questions the dominant position of human beings in ecological systems, confronts the dynamism of all things on earth, and re-examines these complex and intimate interconnections. Synthetic Ecology is composed of three parts: Radical Nature, Entangled Life, and Interwoven Evolution. Expanding the horizons of our thinking from human/society to everything/universe, these concepts ponder the possibilities of future evolution from both planetary perspective and planetary scale.
Bootflower, Patricia Piccinini, 2015.
Image courtesy of the artist. A Natural History of Networks / SoftMachine, Ralf Baecker, 2021. Image courtesy of the artist. ArchaeaBot: A Post Singularity and Post Climate Change Life-form, Anna Dumitriu and Alex May, 2018. Image courtesy of the artist. Totems, Neri Oxman and The Mediated Matter Group, 2019. Image courtesy of Neri Oxman and The Mediated Matter Group. Community, Terike Haapoja, 2009.
Image courtesy of the artist.
Kindred, Patricia Piccinini, 2018. Image courtesy of the artist. Forest Mind, Ursula Biemann, 2021. Image courtesy of the artist. The Substitute, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, 2019. Image courtesy of the artist. Institute of Inconspicuous Languages: Reading Lips, Špela Petrič, 2018. Image courtesy of the artist.
Radical Nature
The emergence of new technologies in the present time has led to a new ecological view of “hyper-nature.” The divide between the natural and artificial has been largely dissolved by developments in science and technology. We are creating a world that is governed by neither natural forces nor scientific logic, but rather the interwoven powers of the two. Neri Oxman employs biotechnology, material science, and digital fabrication to design our own natural ecology, in which “the natural” and “the artificial” are entwined. Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg digitally resurrects an extinct species, bringing it back to life in an artificial environment. The power of science and technology gives “existence” a new standard, as a calling for an alternative reality.
Entangled Life
Rosi Braidotti describes the post-human condition of the present world as a nature-culture continuum. Patricia Piccinini’s artwork stresses the heterogeneity of life forms—this respect to hybridity reveals our symbiogenesis, our shared woes, and our communion with all things. Investigating the mechanism of life at the cultural level, Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr rethink the future of living phenomena by reproducing Leduc’s experiment to create “protocells.” Terike Haapoja’s gaze on life calls for reaffirming radical ideas about “being,” in the moments of life and death.
Interwoven Evolution
Since the time of stardust, evolution has never disconnected “human” and “non-human.” We need to rethink the interdependent relations among oneself and a plant, a grain of dust, a stream of water, or a cluster of stars, and thus delve into the ever-changing properties of ecosystems themselves. To listen to Gaia and feel reverence for the universe—like Liang Shaoji, who has kept silkworm companions for over 30 years, or Rimini Protokoll’s dark prophecy of a jellyfish future. Špela Petrič invites us into a linguistic world of plants, to read their “silent words.” All these other-than-human encounters not only respond to Karen Barad’s idea of entangled existence, but also cultivate a planetary consciousness that contemplates the possibilities of future evolution.
The BATB takes the form of a constellation of exhibitions and initiatives, and brings together 50 renowned artists, scientists and ecologists from all over the world to respond to the salient symptoms of our “entangled era,” where calamity and vitality are contemporaneous phenomena. The Biennale features the China-debut of 25 artworks, with 15 new pieces created during 2021–2022. In addition, the Climate Clock project, which was presented at the 26th United Nations Climate Conference in Glasgow in 2021 (COP26), also participates in the Biennale. This is the first time this pressing, reflective work has been shown in China.
Together with the thematic exhibition, the Biennale launches the special project Climate Care, to be among the first initiatives in China dedicated to exploring the convergence of art, technology and climate change, while seeking to evoke action on the climate crisis in all its facets. Since its inception, the Climate Care initiative has continued to promote innovative movements, launching Climate Clock #ActInTimeChina, the Climate Declaration series, with the Climate Negotiation program coming during the 27th UN Climate Conference (COP27) from November 6–18, 2022. The newly commissioned projects from Carla Chan and Entangled Others (Sofia Crespo and Feileacan McCormick) has been launched alongside the initiative. Furthermore, Climate Care seeks to bring together Web3 and blockchain technology to build the Climate DAO, opening up new pathways for climate action.
Ecological degradation, global warming, climate change, and the limits to growth...these consequences tell us that the earth is not an entity that can be idly subject to human whims. In the age of accelerationism, a time of continuous technological development and expanding self-awareness, humans have realised the necessity of coexistence (entanglement) with animals, plants, and matter. When British scientist James Lovelock first proposed the Gaia hypothesis in the 1970s—envisaging the earth as a super-organism—it ushered in a new way of understanding life that considers the earth as an “alive” entity, able to self-regulate and maintain the stability and continuity of living systems.
The earth is an ecosystem, of which we are entangled in overlapping ecologies of nature, society, and spirit. The paradigm of the Enlightenment has obscured ecology to allow us to believe that it is supposedly untouched and undeveloped; abandoned of all references to actual nature. This is what British philosopher and ecologist Timothy Morton calls “hyperobjects” or “Ecology without Nature.” The loss of the natural dimension of ecology has given rise to a special way of thinking, allowing us overhaul opposing concepts in dualism (culture/nature, subject/object, human/non-human), to further explore technoscience and naturecultures that are more-than-human.
This first edition of the Beijing Art and Technology Biennale (BATB), titled Synthetic Ecology, aims to explore the entanglement of life in symbiontics. As a metaphor, “synthetic” probes the possibilities of reconfiguring nature by examining the post-human ecological imagination, forming a new ontological approach to equality. This concept questions the dominant position of human beings in ecological systems, confronts the dynamism of all things on earth, and re-examines these complex and intimate interconnections. Synthetic Ecology is composed of three parts: Radical Nature, Entangled Life, and Interwoven Evolution. Expanding the horizons of our thinking from human/society to everything/universe, these concepts ponder the possibilities of future evolution from both planetary perspective and planetary scale.
Image courtesy of the artist.
Image courtesy of the artist.
2024
Earthwise
Beijing Art and Technology Biennale (BATB)
October 26, 2024 - February 23, 2025
Participants (in alphabetical order):
Andrea Anner & Thibault Brevet (AATB), Art of Hybrid Intelligence Lab, Azusa Murakami & Alexander Groves (A.A.Murakami), Chen Wenling, Christa Sommerer & Laurent Mignonneau, Climate Clock, Critical Media Lab, David Colombini & Laura Nieder & Marc Dubois (Fragmentin), Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, ETH AI Center, Gary Hill, Ifor Duncan, Janis Polar, Janiv Oron, Juliane Götz & Sebastian Neitsch (Quadrature), Nolan Oswald Dennis, Oliver Ressler, Solveig Suess, Tekla Aslanishvilli, Thomas Feuerstein, Tim Yip, Tobias Klein, Uwe Rieger & Yinan Liu (arc/sec Lab), Wang Zhigang
Curators:
Fei Jun, Naiyi Wang
Academic Advisors (in alphabetical order):
Adrian Notz, Philipp Ziegler
The second edition of Beijing Art and Technology Biennale (BATB) opens to the public from October 26, 2024 to February 23, 2025. With its theme Earthwise, this edition is curated by Fei Jun and Naiyi Wang, and invites 50 artists and scientists from around the globe to reconsider multiple forms of intelligence, animals, plants, machines, planetary intelligence, etc.
What does it mean to be intelligent? Earthwise aims to break human-centric notions of intelligence, and comprises a selection of provocative works that ruminate on notions of intelligence, offering new perspectives that have extended to large-scale processes, including natural systems and planetary systems. Thomas Feuerstein believes that “intelligence” today means rethinking the differences and boundaries between Us and The Other. In his installation METABOLICA-HYDRA, the narrative actors are algae and bacteria, and these non-human actors host an ancient intelligence that can certainly be described as “Earthwise.” A call for a return to the non-anthropocentrism of egalitarian ecological relations can be found in Christa Sommerer & Laurent Mignonneau's Eau de Jardin, which creates an inductive installation that contemplates interconnectedness between humans and plants.
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster's Alienarium connects our encounters with other alien beings, which inspires us to think about how we might relate to one another when untethered from our physical forms. Andrea Anner & Thibault Brevet (AATB) highlights the inextricable entanglement between human perception and cosmic phenomena, A Particular Score IIIreveals our planetary situation and encourages us to re-evaluate our connection to the universe.
Earthwise features two newly commissioned works that the Biennale has handed to Oscar winner Tim Yip and Chinese new media artist Wang Zhigang. Building upon this expansive definition of intelligence, it also collaborates with institutions and labs, such as Critical Media Lab, ETH AI Center and Art of Hybrid Intelligence Lab, and unfolds through a series of new commissions, including Nolan Oswald Dennis' sound installation Superpositions, which is composed from geosonic data, a techno-poetic reflection on our relationship to land, deep time, and planetary interconnection.
"The Biennale presents a plurality of voices which are perfect platforms to explore the entanglement of different forms of intelligence," says curator Naiyi Wang. “Earthwise as a metaphor, which aims to expand the notion of “intelligence” from different perspectives, making us aware of the other intelligences that have been with us all along.”
METABOLICA-HYDRA, Thomas Feuerstein, 2023. Image courtesy of the artist. Scope, Quadrature, 2024. Image courtesy of the artist. Alienarium, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, 2022.
Image courtesy of Serpentine and the artist. LightWing II, Uwe Rieger and Yinan Liu, 2019. Image courtesy of the artist. Under A Flowing Field, A.A.Murakami, 2023. Image courtesy of the artist.
Image courtesy of Serpentine and the artist.
Beijing Art and Technology Biennale (BATB) is the world’s first biennial dedicated to the intersection of art, science and technology, which aims to be an international platform for a broad range of practitioners from the fields of art, science and technology, and to support new artistic engagements and interventions in the context of advanced technologies, such as emerging biotechnologies, life sciences, astrobiology, etc. BATB manifests through exhibitions, commissions, public programmes, publications, and symposiums, as well as structural and systemic initiatives, bringing together practitioners from the fields of art, science, and climatology, among many others.
Since its inception, BATB has become one of the most thought-provoking art events, and played an indispensable role in China’s engagement with the world. Directed by curator Naiyi Wang, each edition brings together the most influential artists, scientists, theorists, curators, activists, technologists, developers and entrepreneurs from all over the world. It is founded with the mission of exploring new ideas in art, science and technology. Through interdisciplinary connections, BATB aims to address the central questions of our future, and create long-lasting effects on our society.
Director and Curator
Naiyi Wang
Head of Exhibitions
Xu He
Head of Programs
Cao Xiaotong
General enquiries
info@beijingarttechnologybiennale.com
Press enquiries
press@beijingarttechnologybiennale.com