The humanoid river toad and the human-butterfly-orchid hybrid were already forgiven. So well, then you opt for a multibody symbiote of monkfish and squid. There I was, in a futuristic spacesuit full of tubes and sensors, with virtual reality glasses on my nose. My arms are fastened to the head of a complete stranger by means of long leather gloves. Somewhat uncomfortably we floated together through an underwater world (beautiful graphics), amidst strange algae and alien-looking octopuses.
Symbiosis is the name of the interactive VR installation that can be experienced this week at the Holland Festival. Whoever enters theater Frascati is expertly transported to a post-apocalyptic future by the self-proclaimed ‘experience designers’ of the Brabant collective Polymorf. Climate change has changed the earth beyond recognition, but on the ruins of the Anthropocene, a colorful post-human biotope of genetically engineered and biotechnological life forms flourishes.
An important source of inspiration for Symbiosis, according to Polymorf members Marcel van Brakel and Mark Meeuwenoord, is the recent work of biologist and feminist science philosopher Donna Haraway. Especially her book Staying with the Trouble (2016), in which she advocates a more balanced relationship between humans and non-humans. In times of climate change and mass extinction (the ‘troubles’ from the title), it is not appropriate, according to Haraway, to continue to see ourselves as a sovereign life form exalted above everything else. And so she makes short shrift of dangerous anthropocentric myths and champions a ‘tentacular’ way of thinking, in which man feels embedded in a fine-meshed ecological web.
speculative fabulation
In her plea for more multispecies relatedness (“Make kin, not babies!”), Haraway sees an important role for what she calls speculative fabulation. In other words: stories that help us envision a radically different, ecologically conscious future. It’s that hint that Polymorph in Symbiosis translates into an immersive multi-sensory experience, in which not only the eyes and ears, but also the sense of smell, taste and touch are addressed. “Embodied virtual reality”, according to the makers, aimed at moving the viewer into the experiential world of other life forms
What’s called: While my symbiotic fellow visitor and I are face to face with a fluorescent jellyfish, our mutated anglerfish DNA manifests itself in the form of an interior monologue on our headphones. “Fatty food, I crave fatty food!” is the sound of the bubbling water. An invisible gel-like snack (prepared by star restaurant Karpendonkse Hoeve) is promptly shoved into my mouth while a pulsating air pocket in my suit massages my throat quasi-amphibious.
Afterwards I browse through the extensive Symbiosis program booklet. Can we think like a slime mold or breathe like a toad? I doubt whether I have really felt like a fish person in the past half an hour. Nevertheless fumbles Symbiosis powerful to our all-too-human perspective.