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Exhibition visit: Anicka Yi — In love with the world

strange blimps floating in Tate Modern Turbine Hall

I’m wondering how many visitors to Anicki Yi’s scene-stealing installation In Love with the World managed to engage with what was apparently one of the key elements in the work. According to the information provided in the Tate Modern Turbine Hall (quoted in the shaded box below), depending on what time of day you visited you might detect the scent of coal and ozone, of Cretaceous vegetation or of spices thought to combat the Black Death. That Hall is a huge space to influence with fragrance, and with the sense of scent being the human’s least highly-attuned I’m sure many will have missed out. I certainly did.

I was simply arrested by the site of these mysterious aquatic creatures floating around the space, nudged this way and that by tiny propellers that gave the forms a seemingly independent life of their own. The forms bobbed gently up and down, sometimes spinning around at random, all the while making their leisurely way through the voluminous space. The bulbous-looking “planulae” look like the white blood corpuscles that attack the miniaturised submarine crew in the 1960s movie Fantastic Voyage; the squid-like “xenojellies” gracefully waved their tentacles, sometimes descending towards an onlooker in a slightly threatening manner. Most of all the viewers were amazed at the technology and ingenuity that gave these forms their animation.

HYUNDAI COMMISSION: ANICKA YI — IN LOVE WITH THE WORLD

What would it feel like to share the world with machines that could live in the wild and evolve on their own?

Anicka Yi offers a vision of a new ecosystem within the Turbine Hall, the large post-industrial space at the heart of Tate Modern. Originally part of Bankside Power Station, the hall was built to house electricity-generating machinery. Yi’s installation populates the space with machines once again. Floating in the air, they prompt us to think about new ways machines might inhabit the world.

At the start of the project, Yi asked herself what a ‘natural history of machines’ could look and feel like. She imagined machines evolving to become living creatures. Yi calls these machines aerobes, and based their shapes on ocean life forms and mushrooms. The hairy, bulbous aerobes are planulae. The aerobes with tentacles are xenojellies (xenos is Greek for foreigner or stranger). Combining forms of aquatic and terrestrial life, Yi’s aerobes signal new possibilities of hybrid machine species.

The aerobes’ individual and group behaviours develop over time, influenced by elements in the ecosystem. Like a bee’s dance or an ant’s scent trail, the aerobes communicate with each other in ways we cannot understand. By merging technology and biology, Yi asks if machines could evolve as independent forms of life.

CONNECTED BY AIR

As you walk around the Turbine Hall, you may smell different scents. Together, these form ‘scentscapes’ which transition from week to week. Yi selected the odours in each scentscape for their association with a specific time in the history of Bankside.

Depending on when you visit, you may smell marine scents related to the Precambrian period, long before humans inhabited earth, coal and ozone conjuring up the Machine Age of the 20th century, vegetation from the Cretaceous period or spices thought to counteract the Black Death in the 14th century. The scentscapes connect the aerobes with the site’s evolution and with other organisms sharing their habitat, including us humans.

The scents ‘sculpt’ the air, indicating that the space is not empty but filled with the air we all share, and on which we depend. Yi is interested in the politics of air and how this is affected by changing attitudes, inequalities and ecological awareness.

RE-IMAGINING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Through her aerobes, Yi asks us to consider our conception of intelligence. As the rapid development of artificial intelligence All continues, she asks why intelligence is often exclusively linked to the brain.

‘Most Al functions like a mind without a body, but living organisms learn so much about the world through the senses. Knowledge emerging from being a body in the world, engaging with other creatures and environments, is called physical intelligence. What if Al could learn through the senses? Could machines develop their own experiences of the world? Could they become independent from humans? Could they exchange intelligence with plants, animals and micro-organisms?’

RE-IMAGINING MACHINE LIFE

A team of specialists developed autonomous versions of uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) to bring Yi’s aerobes to life. UAVs do not require humans to pilot them. Here, they each follow a unique flight path generated from a vast range of options in the system’s software.

This software is called an artificial life program. Scientists use simulations of this kind to study processes of natural life, like evolution and collective behaviour. They are also used to create life like animation and visual effects.

The aerobes respond to changes in the environment, including the heat signatures of people nearby. They receive information from electronic sensors placed around the Turbine Hall, which act as stand-ins for their senses. This sensory information affects their individual and group movements, meaning they will behave differently each time you encounter them.

ABOUT ANICKA YI STUDIO

For Anicka Yi, the artist’s studio is a hub for collective intelligence and creativity. The members of Anicka Yi Studio collaborate with experts across many fields. They believe that creativity is supported through cooperation with diverse partners. Collaborators include philosophers, fabricators, engineers, microbiologists, chemists, anthropologists, conservators and perfumers. They also count microbes, fungi, plants and animals as creative partners.

Yi’s practice explores the merging of technology and biology, breaking down distinctions between plants, animals, micro-organisms and machines. She asks how moving these divisions might challenge an understanding of humans as unique and distinct from other forms of life. The studio’s current research focuses on living organisms, digital technologies and the sense of smell. It is committed to both science and social science as ways to address social and environmental inequality.

Curated by Achim Borchardt-Hume, Director of Exhibitions and Programmes, Mark Godfrey, former Senior Curator and Carly Whitefield, Assistant Curator, International Art, Tate Modern

strange blimps floating in Tate Modern Turbine Hall

SUPPORTERS

Hyundai Commission: Anicka Yi In partnership with Hyundai
Supported by the Anicka Yi Supporters: Candace Carmel Barasch | Gladstone Gallery | Miyoung Lee and Neil Simpkins | Cindy and Howard Rachofsky | Byoung Ho Son | Sang Mo Son and Kyung Soon Lee | Jamie and Robert Soros | The Hartland & Mackie Family Foundation | 47 Canal
With additional support from the Supporters Circle: Eleanor Cayre | The Kahng Foundation

and Tate Americas Foundation

PRODUCTION CREDITS

Production management: Petra Schmidt, Production Manager, Commissions, Tate Modern
Production consultation for Anicka Yi Studio: Laura Lupton, New York
Anicka Yi Studio: Riley Duncan, Remina Greenfield, Saul Valaitis, Nana Tran
Technical lead: AKA Media System, New York
Aerobe behaviour design and development: Sitara Systems, Las Vegas
Aerobes: Airstage, Riederich
Real-time location system based on UWB technology: Pozyx, Ghent
Technical crew: KitMapper, London
Battery Pond: millimetre, Brighton
Scent consultation: Dr Pamela Dalton, Philadelphia
Scents: Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, with addititonal scents provided by International Flavors and Fragrances, Inc.
Production assistance: Jessica Baxter and Lynn Rothwell, Exhibition Assistants; Gareth Fox, AV Technician, Tate Modern

HYUNDAI MOTOR

The Hyundai Commission is part of a unique, long-term partnership between Tate and Hyundai Motor.

At Hyundai Motor, we believe art is an important statement of our time that has the power to connect us beyond boundaries. Art moves us to explore new ways, discover voices and ideas, reflect on our progress and imagine possibilities for the future.

We are committed to supporting initiatives where artists, communities and institutions come together to offer meaningful art experiences, leading to partnerships with organisations around the world. In a collaborative spirit with Tate, we aim to offer transformative experiences that encourage new ways of thinking about art and the values and connections it can create. Inspired by this shared vision, the Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational —part of Hyundai Motor’s expanded partnership with Tate —continues to support global exchanges of art and ideas.

With the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Hyundai Motor offers a decade-long platform for Korean artists. At the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Hyundai Project explores two significant fields, Art+Technology and Korean Art Scholarship, through acquisitions, exhibitions and publications.

Visit artlab.hyundai.com to learn more about our partnerships and programs.

Links:

Photos: LKL, 28 January 2022 | Text in shaded box from information panels at Tate Modern

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