Abstract

Full Paper. Theme Immersion(s) Sub theme Symbiotic Imaginaries

Isabel Stenger warns that we are facing the “intrusion of Gaia” where we have caused significant biogeochemical disruption “capable of threatening our modes of thinking and of living for good”. Through my practice-based research I speculate on a possible future to prompt action to trigger change in how we live, our patterns of consumption, the way we see ourselves in relation to our environment and our respect for and interactions with nature for a sustainable future. Amitav Ghosh proposes that science fiction provides an ideal opportunity to explore our relationship to the world past and present to imagine the im-pacts that living on our planet today will make on tomorrow. Through my research I develop narratives based on speculative imaginings of the future, considering current scientific research, advances in digital technology and environmental factors, to imagine future evolutionary change that will take place if we continue on our current trajectory of global warming. I specu-late on the interactions and interconnections, the transformation of complex systems and organisms leading to new patterns of cellular composites of material and virtual worlds, where biotic and un-biotic beings inhabit a posthuman fusion of humans and machines.

• Dr Charlotte Gould is a senior academic at the University of Brighton (UK), in the School of Art and Media. She has taught all levels of Visual Communication and supervises PhD students. Through her practice she explores the potential for interactive installations in digitally mediated public spaces, promoting public participation through shared experience often using urban screens. She has developed Extended Reality artworks to prompt play and interaction across social and cultural boundaries as well as interactive nonlinear narratives and speculative fiction which explore how we can communicate the threat of ecological crisis, raising public awareness to trigger change in behaviours. Through interactive installa-tions she tests the boundaries of open systems, to offer opportunity for diverse audiences to co-create artworks, impacting on the way we engage in the urban environment and public space and contributing to a collective memory of place in a global context.