Nomination
FORMATA is a multi-sensory art installation, featuring lively and autonomous blobs within an experimental reactor crafted to simulate the conditions of an alien world with liquid formamide. The vibrant blobs that inhabit this ‚mini-planet’ are composed of abiotic fatty acids, amino acids, and hydrocarbons—echoing the organic materials found in meteorites and comets. Unlike Earth, the atmosphere here is an exotic blend of carbon monoxide, ammonia, and argon gases, and the rocky surface is covered with warm pools of formamide. Within these pools, the oily blobs become animated, breaking free from stasis to engage in a dynamic dance of active movement, deformation, and self-division.
Photo: Juan M. Castro
Photo: Juan M. Castro
Photo: Juan M. Castro
In this work, alienness and the perception that these entities are not yet living but are already more or less alive certainly confront visitors in multiple ways. This bodily encounter between the audience and alien active matter is critical to our project. It is important not only in the way that these entities help us to materialize non-human agency, alien life, and the unknown but also for the way in which they compel us to re-evaluate our place in an active cosmos.
Credits
Experimental laboratory: Gifu Prefectural Industrial Technology Center
Rock design: Yasushi Inoue
With support from: The Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences (IAMAS); The Department of Information Design, Tama Art University; The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo
Biography
The PЯОТO-ALIEИ PЯOJECT (JP) is a multidisciplinary laboratory of ideas and experiments at the intersection of media art, chemistry, and astrobiology. Founded in 2019, the project team is made up of Juan M. Castro, Akihiro Kubota and Taro Toyota. Through this project, they explore the synthesis and use of extraterrestrial organic matter (ETOM) as an active medium for artistic purposes. Their works have been presented internationally in various exhibitions, festivals, and galleries.