that which is not me, but of which I am a part

An Ongoing Experiential Laboratorium of Technology, Resonance and Non-Human Agency.

https://www.ghost.flowers/

Download PDF about the artwork

In an ongoing artwork taking the form of an experiential laboratory around technology, resonance, and non-human agency, Garden of Ghost Flowers proposes a collaboration with the public inspired by the experiments and exploration of the 18th Century Garden. By turning our gaze towards ourselves inside the Garden, the artwork is an ongoing process of how technology makes us and lays the ground for our human umwelt; how it connects and disconnects us from each other and other life forms and processes.

This changing and evolving artwork is inspired in part by the sociological concept of Resonance*, a mode of interacting with the world that is not based in control, and by the endangered non-photosynthesizing plant Monotropa Uniflora, also known as the Ghost Flower.

The virtual ghost flower inside the installation is dependent upon networks of human qualities, such as listening, caring, and adapting, as a source of energy. Like a desert, a mountain, or a forest, each group of visitors provides its own unique biotope from which the flower grows. Each life cycle of the flower lasts for 20 minutes and can accommodate up to 25 people.

In mediaeval times, tsunamis, hurricanes and earthquakes were believed to be subject to human misconduct. The irony of this is that in our own époque, the so-called Anthropocene, a relationship has indeed been proven between humanity and so-called natural disasters.

During the fall of 2021 and spring of 2022, Magasin III Museum for Contemporary Art hosted a series of lectures, discussions, and workshops focusing on the creation by Lundahl & Seitl and Untold Garden of Garden of Ghost Flowers – a changing, living artwork, an artificial life form growing and evolving with the help of visitors' collective interaction and resonance. The background to the talks was Magasin III’s engagement in following, supporting, and emphasizing artistic processes – a focal point that the institution will explore further in different kinds of collaborations and projects, starting with the series of programs within Work in progress: Garden of Ghost Flowers.

Read more about the Garden of Ghost Flowers work in progress events and partnership with Magasin III, Stockholm and watch Lundahl & Seitl and Untold Garden in conversation with Peter Godfrey-Smith, author of Other Minds, as part of the series at Magasin III.

An early inception of this artwork premiered at STRP in 2022 and won an STRP ACT Award. STRP Scenario #18, Infinite Conversations, connected to this showing.

Lundahl & Seitl discussed Garden of Ghost Flowers (and others) at Breaking Glass III, Städelschule 2021: link to artist talk. The artwork also features in Lundahl & Seitl's article for the Breaking Glass III journal -read the article.

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Credits

Co-artists: Untold Garden Max Čelar Jakob Skote Kamlaker Dev Singh Reuben Carter

Dramaturg: Rachel Alexander

Composer: Hara Alonso

Producer: Emma Ward

Biosphere fabric-structure: Maria Lindqvist & Johanna Mårtensson

Co-production Garden of Ghost Flowers is a STRP ACT AWARD commission

Ongoing Research Programme Magasin III ’Work in Progress’

The Garden of Ghost Flowers is researched and developed with support by CPH:LAB, Manchester International Festival (UK), IDFA DocLAB, Screen City Biennale (NO), and Magasin lll’s Work in Progress programme.