Honey Fungus is a sci-fi Virtual Reality installation that invites audiences to expand their sensory connection to the greater ecosystem. A sentient ecological presence—manifested as an omnipresent mycelial entity—guides participants on a journey through an entangled ecology.
Through a series of interactive vignettes inspired by the fungal reproductive cycle, users are invited to shape and transform the virtual environment. As they progress, they encounter spores that speak in poetic passages generated by AI, trained on a unique blend of Smithsonian field research and amateur erotica. In these spaces, the scientific merges with the sensual, unveiling the earth’s queer erotic potential and opening new possibilities for ecological stewardship and mutual care between human and non-human life.
This VR world embraces the idea that each of us possesses more than a singular, isolated body. As scholar Daisy Hildyard suggests, we have a 'second body'—one that exists through our interconnectedness with the world around us.
Completed October 2024
Exhibited as Work In Progress:
Bolivar Gallery, Lexington, Kentucky
Hesse Flatow, Expo Chicago
Myclological Film Festival, SVA Theatre, New York
GBA, Brooklyn
Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT
Urban Soils Institute, LMCC Arts Center, Governor’s Island, New York
RealMix 2022, Hyphen Hub, Colombia
Moss Arts Center, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
NEW INC, NewLab, Brooklyn
VISUAL Carlow, Ireland
Producer
Alex Darby, Hybrid.Studio
VR Production
Pariah Interactive
Audio
Reading: Helga Hansen Logan
Sound Design: Frank Sweeney
Vocals: Anna Roberts-Gevalt
Mixing Engineer: Daniel NeumannContributing Writer: Sue Huang
Supported by
The Arts Council of Ireland / An Chomhairle Ealaíon
Stevens Institute
Science Sandbox - Simons Foundation
NEW INC - New Museum
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
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Through a series of interactive vignettes inspired by the fungal reproductive cycle, users are invited to shape and transform the virtual environment. As they progress, they encounter spores that speak in poetic passages generated by AI, trained on a unique blend of Smithsonian field research and amateur erotica. In these spaces, the scientific merges with the sensual, unveiling the earth’s queer erotic potential and opening new possibilities for ecological stewardship and mutual care between human and non-human life.
This VR world embraces the idea that each of us possesses more than a singular, isolated body. As scholar Daisy Hildyard suggests, we have a 'second body'—one that exists through our interconnectedness with the world around us.
Completed October 2024
Exhibited as Work In Progress:
Bolivar Gallery, Lexington, Kentucky
Hesse Flatow, Expo Chicago
Myclological Film Festival, SVA Theatre, New York
GBA, Brooklyn
Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT
Urban Soils Institute, LMCC Arts Center, Governor’s Island, New York
RealMix 2022, Hyphen Hub, Colombia
Moss Arts Center, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
NEW INC, NewLab, Brooklyn
VISUAL Carlow, Ireland
Producer
Alex Darby, Hybrid.Studio
VR Production
Pariah Interactive
Audio
Reading: Helga Hansen Logan
Sound Design: Frank Sweeney
Vocals: Anna Roberts-Gevalt
Mixing Engineer: Daniel NeumannContributing Writer: Sue Huang
Supported by
The Arts Council of Ireland / An Chomhairle Ealaíon
Stevens Institute
Science Sandbox - Simons Foundation
NEW INC - New Museum
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
2D Extract of VR Experience
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Cyborg Ecologies
Article
2024
In Focus: CGI / Digital Art - Visual Artists’ News Sheet
“ Traditionally, my creative process involved
collaboration with actors and non-actors, drawing on methods from filmmaking and theater that were collectively devised. However, the constraints imposed by the COVID-19 lockdown forced a shift in my practice. Unable to engage in physical collaborations, I turned to 3D software to simulate my production model. This transition led me to explore artificial intelligence, virtual reality, motion capture, and digital avatars—emerging technologies that offered new dimensions for my work ...”
Comissioned by Visual Artist Ireland
Read Full Article
Print Version .pdf
“ Traditionally, my creative process involved
collaboration with actors and non-actors, drawing on methods from filmmaking and theater that were collectively devised. However, the constraints imposed by the COVID-19 lockdown forced a shift in my practice. Unable to engage in physical collaborations, I turned to 3D software to simulate my production model. This transition led me to explore artificial intelligence, virtual reality, motion capture, and digital avatars—emerging technologies that offered new dimensions for my work ...”
Comissioned by Visual Artist Ireland
Read Full Article
Print Version .pdf
Notes On Intimacy -
Biodesign Challenge
Panel Discussion
2024
"BDC x NEW INC: Notes On Intimacy" panel discussion at the 2024 Biodesign Challenge Summit, alongside Tao Leigh Goffe, Michelle Shofet, and Elaine Young, which took place at Parsons School of Design - The New School and The Museum of Modern Art.
Our conversation centered around the radical potential of intimacy as a form of collectivity that extends beyond human connections to include non-human beings. We explored how this kind of intimacy can challenge and destabilize oppressive social beliefs, opening new pathways for understanding relationships and ecological interdependence.
A significant part of our discussion was dedicated to the role of language in shaping cultural paradigms. We examined how different languages offer unique ways to articulate the human experience and provide diverse answers to fundamental questions about life.
Parsons School of Design, New School
New York, Thursday, June 13th
Our conversation centered around the radical potential of intimacy as a form of collectivity that extends beyond human connections to include non-human beings. We explored how this kind of intimacy can challenge and destabilize oppressive social beliefs, opening new pathways for understanding relationships and ecological interdependence.
A significant part of our discussion was dedicated to the role of language in shaping cultural paradigms. We examined how different languages offer unique ways to articulate the human experience and provide diverse answers to fundamental questions about life.
Parsons School of Design, New School
New York, Thursday, June 13th
Hesse Flatow at EXPO Chicago
Fair Booth
2024
Hesse Flatow Gallery returns to Chicago with a two-person presentation featuring paintings and works on paper by Kirsten Deirup paired with a virtual reality film and sculptural work by Jonah King, both addressing how AI technologies expand one’s perception and bodily experience of the greater ecosystem through their works. Booth 157.
Navy Pier
600 E Grand Ave
Chicago IL 60611
Thursday, April 11 - Sunday, April 14
Images: Installation view, HESSE FLATOW at EXPO Chicago, 2024. Photo: Mikhail Mishin
Navy Pier
600 E Grand Ave
Chicago IL 60611
Thursday, April 11 - Sunday, April 14
Images: Installation view, HESSE FLATOW at EXPO Chicago, 2024. Photo: Mikhail Mishin
Hybrid Drift
Geolocated Augmented Reality
2023
Hybrid Drift is a site-specific augmented reality (AR) project that invites the audience to experience the landscape of Itaparica as an extended technological/biological hybrid body.
Photogrammetry scanned organic and human-made objects will be reconfigured into floating beings that are visible to anyone using a smartphone.
Supported by the Sacatar Foundation
Photogrammetry scanned organic and human-made objects will be reconfigured into floating beings that are visible to anyone using a smartphone.
Supported by the Sacatar Foundation
