One Body
For the facade of Spjelkavik Arena, Rhoda Ting & Mikkel Bojesen present a lightwork that dances in a choreography inspired by the way in which fungi communicate as one rhizomatic body through electrical signals. The rhizome formation connects and entangles the building with its surroundings in Ålesund the way that fungi are the connectors, communicators and channels in its ecosystem.
A mycelial network is simultaneously a singular body and individual hyphae tips that explore and adapt in relation to their environment without a leader or center. Using electrical signaling, information can travel through an entire mycelial body so fast that it becomes a dynamic and responsive network that is constantly listening and responding to its environment as a living circuit board.
The choreography for the lightwork is programmed with six separate intertwining sequences of varying length drawing inspiration from the way in which fungal hyphae tips explore, search for food, navigate and communicate in multiple directions, each hyphal tip sending messages to the whole body. The piece pulsates slowly like a breathing organism, inviting the audience to slow down and intertwine with fungal rhythms and life cycles.
Through this large light artwork, the artist duo show the intelligence of fungi as a metaphor to how we can seek to restructure our relations to other than human beings in an entangled web of planetary life. Can we be more like mushrooms, adapting, co-existing and co-evolving together?
Neonflex sidebend LED Lights, Aluminium
36 minutes loop, 48 m x 8 m
Curator: Thale Fastvold
Project lead: Laura Veicherts
Design supervisor: Beta Studio
Light production: 181
Spjelkavik Arena, Ålesund Municipality, Norway, 2024
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