CARPA 9 CONFERENCE HELSINKI
Nature After Nature – Multisensory Medley for Systems Awareness
As part of the 9th Colloquium on Artistic Research in the Performing Arts (CARPA9), Jeanette Müller and Paul Divjak presented the participative lecture performance Nature After Nature – Multisensory Medley for Systems Awareness. The piece introduced the MIM (Multisensory-supported Imagination Method), developed within SENSING LIVING SYSTEMS – a sustainable, low-material performance format that replaces elaborate scenographic setups with guided, multisensory-supported imagination. Working with sound, voice, scent, light, touch and a few portable props, MIM makes immersive performance repeatable, transportable and ecologically considerate, placing imagination itself as a renewable resource and a central mode of inquiry within the project’s transdisciplinary framework.
Structured in three parts, the medley invited participants to engage smell, touch and sound as entry points into artistic systems research.
Part 1 revisited the olfactory performance Drawing Trees with Scent, evoking collective olfactory memories and grief around climat change and deforestation through the scents of endangered tree species.
Part 2 drew on the immersive performance Touching Realities – Sensing the Invisible, exploring human–nonhuman interaction through touch-based exercises and a soundscape, guided by General Systems Theory.
Part 3 introduced the olfactory scenographic study CONCEPTION OF SΫS – The Smell of a Mythological Being, inviting participants to smell six scent compositions to open a shared imaginative space for dialogue and resonance.
Situated within CARPA9’s focus on ecological design, performance pedagogies and storytelling in response to the climate crisis, the medley demonstrated how artistic practice can make systemic interconnectedness experientially tangible. The related proceeding, Nature After Nature – Multisensory Medley for Systems Awareness, was published in the CARPA9 proceedings.
August 2025 – Uniarts Helsinki, Finland
