The core of the project focuses on understanding what the interaction with and care of healthy soil means for the future of agri-food systems. This also implies understanding how fungi emerge as perfect indicators of biodiversity as they point to the necessary existence of interspecies collaboration in metabolic processes.
The audience is presented with a garden device designed for the cultivation and biosonification of saprophytic fungi. The device functions as an interactive installation, where a soundscape interprets the blooming of the fungi crop. Simultaneously, the performative actions of the audience—detected through their presence and touch on the surrounding soil—are musically integrated in real time.
The work proposes that art can help reimagine the future through synaptic and performative empathy, encouraging us to see and listen to the soil as an extension of our own bodies, as part of a shared ecosystem.
Ritual Device for Fungal Humus / Santiago Morilla - Photo: Santiago Morilla
Exhibit
Ritual Device for Fungal Humus
Everyone should be a musician, a dancer, and a fungus farmer (at the same time)
Santiago Morilla (ES)
Credits
Concept and Art Direction: Santiago Morilla. I Created within the residency program of the Tilling Roots and Seeds project, developed in collaboration with Ferrer Sustainability, Tectum Garden, Món Sant Benet – Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera, and Fundación Contorno Urbano. I With the support of Quo Artis Foundation, the Dept. of Culture of the Government of Catalonia, and the Barcelona City Council. I Physical Computing, Interactive Design and Software Development: Joaku de Sotavento & Fernando Fernández. I Music, Field Recordings and Soundscape Design: Santiago Morilla and Joaku de Sotavento (with the special vocal collaboration of Coco Moya). I Hardware Design and Construction: Santiago Morilla, Olly Needham and Nicholas Burridge. I Fungi Suppliers (collaborators): Fungi Natur (Santolaya de Cabranes). Academic support: Research group arte-conocimiento.com, Universidad Complutense de Madrid. This project has been developed and is presented in the context of Tilling Roots&Seeds. Tilling Roots&Seeds is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.
Please note: The program for the Ars Electronica Festival 2025 is still in progress.
We are currently preparing all the information for the website and plan to put the full program online in the coming days – stay tuned!