Nature After Nature: TOUCHING REALITIES / SENSING THE INVISIBLE
Scenographic Performance and Exhibition
The Performance Nature After Nature: TOUCHING REALITIES / SENSING THE INVISIBLE was presented at the Songkhla Art Center in Thailand. The performance formed part of the artistic research process of SENSING LIVING SYSTEMS and served as an experimental platform for exploring new ways of sensing and relating to living systems.
Developed by MUELLER-DIVJAK and conceptually grounded in insights from systems science, the performance was further refinded, realized, and performed in collaboration with Zun Ei Phyu, Ulrich Gottlieb, and Tuntun Taratawan Krue-On.
At its center was a mysterious figure brought to life that symbolized living systems and their behaviour. Told through a fairy-tale-like, transcultural informed and easily accessible narrative, the performance unfolded without words, using sound, touch and smell as its primary means of expression. It depicted human beings striving to find ways of relating to and dealing with complex, often unpredictable living systems. Their efforts to understand and control these systems through purely intellectual and data-driven approaches failed. Success emerged only through a resonant and relational mode of engagement that transcended binary thinking and overcome rigid oppositions.
The work presented the ability to “dance” with living systems as a vital skill for navigating complexity and co-creating more sustainable futures. Through themnon-verbal, multisensory narrative, the performance invited audiences to engage with questions of interconnectedness, emergence, and human relationships with the living and more-than-human world.
The multisensory exhibition featured signs bearing the words ‘Please touch’.
Both the performance and the multisensory exhibition turned systems theory into a multisensory experience, helping the audience to sense how human and more-than-human systems are interconnected and interlaced / intertwined. Through movement, sound, and symbolic objects, abstract ideas became tangible and easier to understand, raising awareness of the interconnections in complex environments. The use of AI-generated art added another layer, opening a dialogue between technology and nature and showing how artificial systems influence the way we perceive reality. The performance took place not only at the Art Center in Songkhla but also at the Austrian Embassy in Bangkok in April 2024.
March/April 2024 – Songkhla Art Center, Thailand
April 2024 – Austrian Embassy Bangkok, Thailand
