Memory Bogging: Sensory Variations of a Future Past

Memory Bogging: Sensory Variations of a Future Past project was conceptualised and enacted in close collaboration with Cynthia Blanchette, and Jana Siren.

We were interested in the bog, as a historical record of past biodiversity and ecosystem development capable of composting, preserving and creating new life. Its acidic anaerobic atmosphere works to store carbon dioxide, which brings into question the practice of draining bogs, that release carbon dioxide into the environment. What if we have not appropriately valued this ecosystem that does not support our weight but rather attempts to consume us? 

Through this exploratory investigation we looked at the bog as a brain: a heavy entity consisting of dense layers of information, extinct plant matter, preserved artefacts and a deep understanding of non-human history. We asked questions as “What could we learn from it? How would it communicate? How would we entice it to communicate? And would we learn to understand it”

The project was presented in the Interspecies Liminalities exhibition in three parts: the video installation directed, filmed and edited by me, in which a fiction researcher character from the future is trying to examine the bog, communicate with it, listen to it, smell it, etc., the protective costume of the researcher was designed by Cynthia Blanchette, who also ideated and performed the characters well as the imaginary Bog archive created by Jana Siren.