PLOTTING PATTERNS and PORTALS

No human has ever set foot on Mars. But we have been studying the surface of the red planet closely for several years already through the lens of the Perseverance, which moves around and pulls samples from it's the soil. Space farmers are even studying how to grow nutritious plants on Mars. This makes it seem like only a small step before we can actually build there. Until then, however, we better use all the extraterrestrial knowledge we gather there to endure the increasingly extreme conditions we find ourselves in here on Earth.

Speaking of the universe, why is it that whenever we imagine unknown beings, we always tend to look to space and see them coming from there? Might not the extraterrestrial live within ourselves, in our brain's ability to create gateways to our deepest fears and greatest wonders?

And if the otherworldly resides in our minds, it is not strange to consider that the traumas of our earthly existence reside in our bodies and are passed on from generation to generation. Can we then overcome those traumas, from colonialism and racism to misogyny, and reclaim our bodies by studying them differently and encapsulating the knowledge we gain into powerful stories of our own.

With Plotting Patterns and Portals. Mapping Life and Landscapes, MU questions the lenses and perspectives through which the world and the universe, the body and the brain are studied. Peering through sophisticated telescopes using intelligent systems and sophisticated sensors, we look for patterns in data and create a sea of them. But how do we fathom and understand what we see and experience through those data? Who is watching and what do we learn by looking in these ways? And what are we not seeing? What worldviews and stories do we distil from all the information we collect, how do we map them and are other stories imaginable? What reveals itself when we shift or completely invert familiar perspectives?

The ten projects by as many artists and scientists presented in Plotting Patterns and Portals. Mapping Life and Landscapes do just that: they change perspectives and rewrite narratives. Central to this are the works of the three winning teams of the internationally leading Bio Art & Design - or BAD - Award. As in previous years, the carefully matched teams of artists and scientists focus imaginatively on a year-long joint investigation, not avoiding the complex questions of our time. Nor do the seven artistic colleagues gathered around them by MU's curators. All ten of them challenge the audience to think, write and participate in order to change perspectives and open unknown portals together.

Visit PLOTTING PATTERNS and PORTALS

Mapping Life and Landscapes, past and future

till March 17 2024 at MU Hybrid Art House, Torenallee 40-06 in Eindhoven.

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