“Not everything everywhere is for us.”
Stanislaw Lem, The Invincible
Messages to A Post Human Earth is an interactive, multi-sensorial journey through the beautiful grounds of the Botanic Garden at the Jagiellonian University, where you and your partner will embark on an evocative audio journey featuring augmented reality (AR), to reimagine your relationship with the natural world.
The story explores the work of Monica Gagliano and an essay by science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem, which he wrote for the Human Interference Task Force in the 1980s. Lem’s essay was written in response to a request for ideas of what to do with nuclear waste and its incredibly long life span; he suggested encoding messages into the DNA of plants. Gagliano is well known for her research into plant intelligence and the behaviours that demonstrate memory by the Mimosa plant.
Designed for two people to experience together, you will be provided with a special device and props before being sent off to explore the natural world; a hearing, living thing, sensorially alert like you.
You and your partner’s short journeys are different but will work in synchronicity with the other. Like a symbolic choreography, both of your actions become a performance for the other.Invisible to the naked eye, the audio narration and AR content comes to life to invite musing on the living environment and a future world in which humans will no longer be present.
This experience lasts approximately 45 minutes.
Messages to A Post Human Earth is a work by Anagram, commissioned by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Poland, in collaboration with IDFA DocLab R&D Program in Amsterdam. With special thanks to Monica Gagliano, Research Associate Professor in Evolutionary Ecology at the Biological Intelligence (BI) Lab, Southern Cross University.
ANAGRAM is an award-winning creative studio specialising in thought-provoking interactive storytelling and immersive experience design. From meticulously designed theatrical sets to ancient buildings to just about anywhere outside in the wild – each piece gets you entangled with a place. Winners of the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival Storyscapes award, the 2019 Sandbox Immersive Art award, part of the Best VR in 2019 at the Venice International Film Festival. Named in the Createch 100 ones to watch for 2020 by the Creative Industries Council and selected twice for Columbia University’s Digital Dozen Breakthroughs in Digital Storytelling (in 2015 and 2019).
The Adam Mickiewicz Institute is a national cultural institution whose goal is to build a lasting interest in Polish culture around the world. The Institute cooperates with foreign partners and initiates international cultural exchange in dialogue with recipients, in line with the goals and aims of Polish foreign policy. The Institute has completed and realizes cultural projects in 70 countries on 6 continents, incl. in Great Britain, France, Russia, Israel, Germany, Turkey, USA, Canada, Australia, Morocco, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, as well as in China, Japan, and Korea. To date, the Institute presented 38 strategic programmes, which were seen by 60 million viewers. The IAM is promoted by the Ministry of Culture, National Heritage and Sport.
