The Living Planet

The multiple crises that have dominated this year have laid bare grave social inequalities and the fragility of our relationship with the natural world. The desire to come together in collective response to the climate crisis and racial injustice has been frustrated by the equally pressing need to isolate and contain a disease that is disproportionate in its effects on the most vulnerable in society. How, in this time of separation and increasing alienation from one another, can we use readily available technologies to augment our perception of ourselves and our realities, and to connect with others (both human and non-human) in ways that are sensorial and empathic? Can we unlearn the physical limitations of our identities to exist in other speculative forms that transform and transpose us to the collective bodies we wish to be with?

Expanding on FACT’s year-long exploration of The Living Planet, Ars Electronica Garden Liverpool will feature livestream performances, artist conversations, an online interactive fiction game where users can explore a visual and textual world created from a conversation between two artists, and exhibition tours from the perspective of non-human species.