Virtual Ecology Created by Your Fingertips

Culture | Viljelmä in MUU Gallery 8.4.- 15.5.2016 (Lönnrotinkatu 33, 00180 Helsinki)
Openings 7.4.2016 klo 17-19

Place your hand on the sensors and a moment later a virtual creature generated by the signals of your body will swim into the basin in front of you. Culture – Viljelmä is the latest exhibition of interactive art by the Brains on Art collective that combines science and art in their projects. The collective’s previous works were based on the use of brain sensors, here they employ popular biohacking equipment such as a heart rate monitor and a skin conductance sensor commonly used to monitor stress levels.

The centrepiece of the show is a large basin that looks a bit like a Petri dish, where visitors can create virtual microorganisms from signals generated by their body. The creatures swim in the shallow water of the basin and react to each other. The visitors’ body signals determine the life span, colour and shape of the creatures, but also their behaviour towards each other. This establishes an ecosystem in the basin, where a heartbeat turns into fertility and a stress level into aggression.

Culture – Viljelmä is the third solo exhibition of the Brains on Art collective. The previous shows were in XL Art Space in 2013 and in Gallery Huuto in 2014. They have also participated in several group exhibitions, including the Mänttä Art Festival in 2014. The collective’s brain poem generator, Brain Poetry, was on show the same year in the Finnish pavilion at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

The members of Brains on Art are artist Kasperi Mäki-Reinikka, engineer Jari Torniainen, cognitive scientists Aleksander Alafuzoff and Henri Kotkanen, and computer scientist Jukka Toivanen. The graphic design of the exhibition is done by Annukka Mäkijärvi and the exhibition design by Arto Kuusisto.

Exhibition is supported by the Alfred Kordelin Foundation, Arts Promotion Centre Finland and Finnish Cultural Foundation.