Staying in Touch: case study of artistic research during the COVID-19 lock-down

Abstract

In April 2020, artists Robertina Šebjanič, Louise Mackenzie, Karolina Żyniewicz and Isabel Burr Raty were invited by Dalila Honorato to develop research on the theme of “Staying in Touch: post-coronavirus art curating” as part of the collaborative digital art residency Braiding Friction. Working remotely across Slovenia, the UK, Poland, Belgium, Greece, USA and Portugal the group developed a speculative fiction in which art is the virus and art practitioners act as frontline workers. Braiding historical and contemporary art, architectural and bio-art practices, the group developed potential futures for post-pandemic art spaces, resulting in a fictional account of a series of art exhibitions that coincide with a pandemic event. The research was synthesised in the form of a pseudo-documentary premiered by the Creative Europe project BioFriction on 23rd July 2020.

This article presents the transcript of the pseudo-documentary “Staying in Touch” (Honorato, Mackenzie, Żyniewicz, Burr Raty, Šebjanič and Tavares 2020, 00:00:00 to 00:47:55), set in 2039: an ergodic narrative constructed as a self-ethnographic role-playing exercise by its contributors, where alter-egos Vess L, Arri Val, K-130, Soladite Carnelian and Anise Neuchâtel reflect on their curatorial practices before, during and after the pandemic. Whilst the narrative draws from many academic and contemporary influences, any references to historical events, real people or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places or incidents are the product of the authors’ imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. “Staying in Touch” was edited by Pavel Tavares with the support of Cultivamos Cultura and included cameo appearances by artists Marta de Menezes, Yann Marussich and Adam Zaretsky. At its core, this work is a case study of artistic research and the possibilities of interactive engagement during the COVID-19 lockdown.

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E-JOURNAL ON ART, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
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A UOC scientific e-journal
2021, Isabel Burr Raty, Dalila Honorato, Louise Mackenzie, Robertina Šebjanič, Karolina Żyniewicz
Artnodes, no. 27 (2021) I ISSN 1695-5951
2021, of this edition by FUOC
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ARTICLE
Staying in Touch: case study of artistic
research during the COVID-19 lockdown
Abstract
In April 2020, artists Isabel Burr Raty, Louise Mackenzie, Robertina Šebjanič and Karolina
Żyniewicz were invited by Dalila Honorato to develop research on the theme of “Staying in
Touch: post-coronavirus art curating” as part of the collaborative digital art residency Braiding
Friction. Working remotely across Slovenia, the UK, Poland, Belgium, Greece, USA and Portugal
the group developed a speculative fiction in which art is the virus and art practitioners act as
Recommended citation
Burr Raty, Isabel; Honorato, Dalila; Mackenzie, Louise; Šebjanič, Robertina; Żyniewicz,
Karolina. 2021. «Staying in Touch: case study of artistic research during the COVID-19
lockdown». In: Benítez, Laura; Berger, Erich (coord.) «Arts in the time of pandemic». Artnodes,
no. 27: 1-12. UOC. [Accessed: dd/mm/yy]. http://doi.org/10.7238/a.v0i27.375059
The texts published in this journal are – unless otherwise indicated – covered by the Creative
Commons Spain Attribution 4.0 International license. The full text of the license can be consulted here:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Isabel Burr Raty
Artist and filmmaker
Dalila Honorato
Ionian University, Greece
Louise Mackenzie
Independent artist
Robertina Šebjanič
Independent artist
Karolina Żyniewicz
University of Warsaw
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Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
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NODE «ARTS IN THE TIME OF PANDEMIC»
Date of submission: October 2020
Accepted in: December 2020
Published in: January 2021

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artnodes
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
Staying in Touch: case study of artistic research during the COVID-19 lockdown
2
A UOC scientific e-journal
2021, Isabel Burr Raty, Dalila Honorato, Louise Mackenzie, Robertina Šebjanič, Karolina Żyniewicz
Artnodes, no. 27 (2021) I ISSN 1695-5951
2021, of this edition by FUOC
CC
CC
frontline workers. Braiding historical and contemporary art, architectural and bio-art practices, the group developed
potential futures for post-pandemic art spaces, resulting in a fictional account of a series of art exhibitions that coincide
with a pandemic event. The research was synthesised in the form of a pseudo-documentary premiered by the Creative
Europe project BioFriction on 23rd July 2020.
This article presents the transcript of the pseudo-documentary “Staying in Touch” (Honorato, Mackenzie, Żyniewicz,
Burr Raty, Šebjanič and Tavares 2020, 00:00:00 to 00:47:55), set in 2039: an ergodic narrative constructed as a
self-ethnographic role-playing exercise by its contributors, where alter-egos Vess L, Arri Val, K-130, Soladite Carnelian
and Anise Neuchâtel reflect on their curatorial practices before, during and after the pandemic. Whilst the narrative
draws from many academic and contemporary influences, any references to historical events, real people or real
locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places or incidents are the product of the authors’ imagination,
and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. “Staying in Touch”
was edited by Pavel Tavares with the support of Cultivamos Cultura and included cameo appearances by artists Marta
de Menezes, Yann Marussich and Adam Zaretsky. At its core, this work is a case study of artistic research and the
possibilities of interactive engagement during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Keywords
Curating, multispecies, COVID-19, pandemic sci-fi, artistic research, digital collaboration
Mantenerse en contacto: caso de estudio de investigación artística durante el confinamiento
por la COVID-19
Resumen
En abril de 2020, Dalila Honorato invitó a las artistas Isabel Burr Raty, Louise Mackenzie, Robertina Šebjanič y Karolina
Żyniewicz a desarrollar una investigación sobre «Mantenerse en contacto: comisariar el arte poscorona-virus» como
parte de la residencia de arte digital Braiding Friction. El grupo, que trabajó de manera remota desde Eslovenia, el
Reino Unido, Polonia, Bélgica, Grecia, los Estados Unidos y Portugal, desarrolló una ficción especulativa en la que
el arte es el virus y las profesionales del arte actúan como trabajadoras en primera línea. Al entrelazar prácticas
de arte histórico y contemporáneo, de arquitectura y bioarte, el grupo creó futuros en potencia para espacios de
arte pospandémico, lo que resultó en un relato ficticio de una serie de exposiciones de arte que coinciden con un
episodio de pandemia. La investigación se sintetizó en forma de pseudodocumental, que se estrenó en el proyecto
BioFriction del programa Creative Europe el 23 de julio de 2020.
En este artículo se presenta la transcripción del pseudodocumental Staying in Touch [Mantenerse en contacto]
(Honorato, Mackenzie, Żyniewicz, Burr Raty, Šebjanič y Tavares 2020, desde 00:00:00 hasta 00:47:55), ambientado
en 2039, un relato ergódico construido como un ejercicio de juego de rol auto-etnográfico para las colaboradoras,
donde los alter ego –Vess L, Arri Val, K-130, Soladite Carnelian y Anise Neuchâtel– reflexionan sobre sus comisa-
riados antes, durante y después de la pandemia. Aunque el relato se basa en muchas influencias académicas y
contemporáneas, todas las referencias a eventos históricos, a personas y lugares reales se usan de manera ficticia.
El resto de nombres, lugares e incidentes son producto de la imaginación de las autoras, y cualquier parecido con
hechos reales, lugares y personas, vivas o fallecidas, es pura coincidencia. Pavel Tavares editó Staying in Touch
con la ayuda de Cultivamos Cultura e incluyó los cameos de los artistas Marta Menezes, Yann Marussich y Adam
Zaretsky. Este trabajo es, en esencia, un estudio de caso de investigación artística de la posibilidad de la participación
interactiva durante el confinamiento por la COVID-19.
Palabras clave
Comisariado, multiespecies, COVID-19, ficción científica pandémica, investigación artística, colaboración digital

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Staying in Touch: case study of artistic research during the COVID-19 lockdown
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A UOC scientific e-journal
2021, Isabel Burr Raty, Dalila Honorato, Louise Mackenzie, Robertina Šebjanič, Karolina Żyniewicz
Artnodes, no. 27 (2021) I ISSN 1695-5951
2021, of this edition by FUOC
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Introduction
No other art piece exhibited in the 21st century has caused so much
controversy as Blue Tree, curated by the team at the Museum of
Modern Art. This artwork is an integral part of the Staying in Touch
exhibition celebrating twenty years now, after the high-security
profile of the latest Staying in Touch II in 2029. Today, one year after
the vaccine, and with its final opening scheduled for 2049, the three
parts of the exhibition clearly seem to mark different stages of art
shows’ regulations related with public health. Both the curatorial
team and their mythical Blue Tree have been connected with the
origin of the 2019 pandemic. But who are Arri Val, Soladite Carnelian,
Vess L, K130 and Anise Neuchâtel, and what is the mystery behind
the art they publicly present under a complex system of rituals and
security protocols?
What is the responsibility of your department in
this exhibition?
Vess L (VL): Hi, my name is Vess L and I am responsible for the
Boundary Division here at MOMA and in the Boundary Division, our
vision is to have no boundaries. Within that I am also responsible
for Deportment. The Deportment Department focuses on how an
audience will experience work within the context of an exhibition.
I’m a bio-ethnographer and a biocultural curator and my research
interests lie in multispecies agency and body fluidity. I like to… do
what I can to connect with my ancestral and future kin, so I enjoy
wild walking, rain dancing, mud bathing and open water swimming.
Soladite Carnelian (SC): My name is Soladite Carnelian. I have
been in charge of the Wear-Able Departments of the Staying in Touch
exhibition for the Museum of Modern Art. I am an astrophysicist and
microbiologist and a psychic. When I was 33 years old, I survived the
stroke of a thunder... and since then my sex snake is awake.
Anise Neuchâtel (AN): My name is Anise Neuchâtel. I am respon-
sible for the PR department, Communication, and I think the name
is self-explanatory; my job is to make sure that the promotion of the
exhibition is run successfully.
Arri Val (AV): My name is Arri Val. At art gallery spaces, I lead the
Department of Art-Intra-Action. At this department, we try to bring
hypnotic storytelling to the public, and it is important to bring different
relationships between multi-species, so that’s why one of our lead
or core ideas is multispecies care.
K-130: My name is K-130. I am an embodied prototype of bio-safety
and art-safety protocol. I run the Department of Safe Transformation
collaborating with the Boundary Division Deportment Department,
The Department of Art Intra-Action and The Department of Wearables.
VL: So, the work of the Boundary Division Deportment Department
is largely based around a philosophy inspired by the now legendary
artist, filmmaker and philosopher Trinh Minh-Ha. I have a quote from
Trinh Minh-Ha here [reading from Boundary Division Vision Statement]
“Rather than going for the new object of study, the new product
to consume, one should work on new ways of seeing, of being, or
of living the world.” (Minh-Ha 2013) “This document outlines the
division of responsibility associated with boundaries. There is no
outline. There are no boundaries. There is no division. At least not
biologically speaking. Lively material – molecular biological matter
that constitutes life – knows no boundaries.”
AV: The responsibility of the Department of Art-Intra-Action inside
of the exhibition Staying In Touch was to make sure that the public
gets the best possible outcome of experiencing the artwork. In the
year 2019, the security and presence of [humans] in public spaces
wasn’t so complicated. It was much more challenging during the last
exhibition in 2029, where touch started to be so toxic. We really had
to work very closely with different departments.
AN: Now, the difference between the first and the second exhi-
bition: before the pandemic, things were quite simple and straight-
forward, no? One had to do the job as good as it could be done. Well,
with the pandemic things changed a bit and so my work also became
more demanding concerning the evaluation of the psychological com-
ponents to include and how to balance the difficulties of convincing
the political status that we should keep art spaces open and not
simply digitalised, and to guarantee that people wouldn’t hurt people,
by being too close to people. Also - and this is very tricky - playing
with the fear of the contagious.
SC: For the first exhibition of Staying in Touch, I designed Sex
in the Public Wearables. At the entrance of the show, guests were
invited to cover their entire bodies with antiviral glowing serum.
The public was also handed 10 grams of Sniffing Pulvilio, made of
the Giant Frog (from the Amazon) powder (Cormier 2019), which
was meant to boost up their immune system for the duration of
the show and if vomiting occurred we provided buckets. Finally,
there was an orgasmic patch at their disposition, which was placed
between the L5 and the S1, while ecstasy force is released from
the durational orgasmic body state into the space (Barhum, and
Collins 2020; Kohn 2006). For the 2029 version, I designed the
Diadem Headset, a mobile brain interface that covered the upper
part of the cranium and provided total darkness to the eyes. The
device downloaded light available in the Polaris Star and direc-
ted its photon frequency firstly to the pituitary gland (Kohn 2006,
331), enhancing the production of enough endogenous opioids to
stop the natural breathing function of the body …and secondly, to
the heart - providing sufficient biochemical energy to amplify the
electromagnetic field of the heart (HeartMath Institute 2016) and to
synchronise the hearts of the public members into one single pulse.
The pineal gland chemically reacted to the heart pulsations, starting
DMT [Dimethyltryptamine] production (Strassman 2001), activating
an out-of-body travel experience and opening the mid-eyebrow

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(Bertch 2019), to give direction inside the eco-synth-tech-cosmic
bodies and worlds where the art show was taking place.
K-130: After the first show, we got were transformed, especially
myself. Firstly, I got an extension to be able to spray people with
some kind of safe substance, let’s say a kind of sanitiser. But then
something amazing happened in medicine and biotechnology. These
areas collaborated with art in order to find the best possible way of
avoiding infection but being still able to be whilst still being extremely
open to art. I think the exhibition is brilliant. It’s developing, it’s shaping
our consciousness, our embodiment, our way of perception.
AV: It is our collegialism [sic], it is our ways - how we managed
to work with each other - it was one of the most important issues
that we could continue working in these crazy times, when the virus
was so present.
SC: I feel highly privileged to be able to work with the rest of the
curators of the different departments that form part of the Staying in
Touch exhibition, thanks to the encrypted software we have here and
the quantum wi-fi, since I can’t reveal my exact location.
How did this all start?
AN: How did this all start? (Smile) It’s an interesting story, actually
this might be the collection of different stories because I think each
one of us has a different memory. Back in 1999, five little girls
went to the island of Chios. So now we are talking about, at least,
a decade between the two events, our vacations back in Greece
and the development of our own professional experiences. When
I was eleven, I couldn’t see and my aunt decided to take me on
vacation to Greece. I used to go out at night. Guess what? I am also
allergic to sunlight. So little batgirl, eleven years old, had a chance
behind her door to listen to the stories of the four girls who never
met during that summer. And we all had one thing in common. We
all went to the meadow and we all ate the caterpillar.
SC: I have known Vess L, K130, Arri Val and Anise Neuchâtel
since childhood. By coincidence we all met when we were visiting
the Pistacia lentiscus tree (Bruni 2019). It was at this place that each
one of us ate the caterpillar.
VL: Did Anise say that we met in Greece? In Chios? I don’t re-
member that. I visited Chios as a child, many of us have. It has these
wonderful trees with this amazing blue aura. I went there when I was
young, my mother took me, she had also visited Chios as a child. So,
when she was there - she was very young when she went there - she
ate a caterpillar that had been crawling on one of the trees and later
that day, she peed blue. She forgot about it for years, but from very
young, she was very passionate about art and was particularly drawn
towards certain works (she loved [name inaudible]). When she was
a young teenager, she went to one of his gallery openings and was
able to tell him the story of her trip to Chios as a child and he was
obsessed with this story and he invited her back to his studio and
asked her to urinate for him. He tasted it and then peed blue. So
the story goes, this was the birth of the idea of his infamous gallery
opening where everyone was offered a cocktail and it wasn’t until
they all went home that the audience that had been invited to the
gallery discovered that they also peed blue (Triscott 2012).
K-130: My obsession with art started when I was a kid. At that
time, I was not able to recognise that my fascination was, like, a result
of infection. I remember the most beautiful vacation in my life when
I found a blue tree and a blue caterpillar on it. I was always really
into things being rejected, being awful, being not acceptable. That is
why, even feeling a bit disgusted, I ate the caterpillar (Kristeva 1982).
Nothing bad happened at that time. I did not feel sick.
AN: The caterpillar (laughs), let’s imagine that I also had that
caterpillar. I can’t tell you if my pee was blue or not. In 2019, I had
my operation and finally I would be able to see it. Was I enchanted?
Definitely. Was I scared? Oh yeah. Was it blue? Yeah, but blue was
the color of contagious that night too (Ingvaldsen, Leegaard, Kravdal,
and Mørk 2020; Wilkes, and Nagalli 2020). And maybe I wished I
didn’t see. I cursed myself for some time that maybe I was so keen
to bring people together, maybe I was so keen to see it myself that I
had actually contributed to the dissemination of the disease.
SC: And when we were all thinking of inviting the same artist,
the artist Ruby, to exhibit this Blue Tree - that we understood that
we had met before.
AV: There is lots of mythology around this tree because it
has this amazing, unbelievable bluish essence around it so when
you come into the space you see that something is different, but
you can see exactly what it is. And the artist who brought this
to all of us, he told us a lot of these kind of stories when he was
presenting the artwork. She told us, in one of the meetings, this
incredibly amazing story about this special space - the island -
where gravity is different from all other places around the world.
This kind of like, very special geologic rarity. The phenomena is
that because of these different gravitational forces, the light has
different possibilities, and that is where the bluish light is coming
from (Scientific American 2020).
K-130: I started to work for the Museum of Modern Art actually one
year before that first Staying in Touch exhibition. It was a challenge;
I was really excited. I was excited because it was the first exhibition
without an exhibited object. It was just about a tree, the tree which
was a kind of biofact (Karyffalis 2008) because, of course, it was not
created; it was something that was just derived from reality. Actually,
we have been working really hard with the rest of my team, carrying
- every day - water and soil for the tree, so we were sweating a lot.
We did not recognise that we were sweating blue.
VL: It is even rumoured that Yann Marussich - who famously
performed a piece where his sweat was blue (Marussich 2007) - it
is said that he hails from a long line of descendants of Chios. The

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2021, Isabel Burr Raty, Dalila Honorato, Louise Mackenzie, Robertina Šebjanič, Karolina Żyniewicz
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artist, Marta de Menezes, her mother is also an artist and she is
said to have attended one of the gallery openings and ever since
then she has been obsessed with butterflies - painted butterflies
continuously. This was said to have inspired Marta de Menezes’ own
butterfly work (de Menezes 1999). So obviously when we received
a proposal from the artist to bring Blue Tree to MOMA, I couldn’t
refuse, we were delighted.
K-130: A few days after the opening, people visiting the exhibition
realised that they were sweating blue. That was the moment when
the pandemic started. We did not know that there was something in
common - each of the workers visited the same space and time in
childhood - and everybody started to be fascinated in art. We met
randomly, or maybe not randomly, curating this exhibition. Nobody
actually judged us that we caused the pandemic somehow but the
kind of punishment which we got was being responsible (Haraway
1988) for the different exhibitions from the same series. That is why
we also prepared the second Staying in Touch exhibition, getting
a lot of improvement, getting a lot of body extensions, helping
us in curating and we also got transformed, so right now we are
approaching a new era, a new era in history of art and a new era
in curating.
What effect did the pandemic have on the
curatorial work of art events?
AN: I’m sure my colleagues can tell you more about the effects of
the pandemic in the curatorial work. On my behalf I almost had to
lie. I mean to promise that we knew exactly what we were doing,
that it was absolutely safe and absolutely remarkable (Nerlich, and
Halliday 2007).
AV: It’s a very important question, because the effect the pandemic
had on the curatorial work of all of our departments together is very,
very present. It’s not only in our place, but in other spaces where
I collaborate, and of course we have problems in art - who knows
what the after-effects will be? For so long, there was much terrifying
news coming out - devastating – about what the main reason could
be and that we cannot function anymore, like we had been. Also, one
of the strange reasons could be our space? That we are the ones who
are guilty. Now they try to throw the guilt at art, which I think is just
like… who knew that people could think like that?
SC: The wearables I designed for the 2019 exhibition were offered
to the public to experience the show more in depth and to make
love with what’s visible and invisible in the art space; but they were
also offered as anti-viral contamination devices. As a team we had
foreseen the possible viral breakout. Though, the wearables protocol
I designed was not obligatory and this resulted in the spread out of
the pandemic. Paradoxically, our exhibition became famous in the
entire world. We decided to continue with the exhibition and do the
second version in 2029, back then when the planet as we knew it
in the ‘80s had already changed, that’s when I made the Diadem
Headset (Bitbrain 2018).
K-130: The pandemic changed the way of thinking about art in
a fundamental way. We realised that it is not the matter of objects
anymore. It is rather the matter of the performative process happening
around. And we also realised that safety is not something necessary,
friction is more useful. So actually, it caused a general development
in the art area.
AV: It happens often that what starts out as a vision or idea
becomes a sense of reality. The reality we changed …and we can’t
go back.
AN: Things just didn’t make sense. Everybody seemed to be pro-
mising that reality was different when we would go back to normality.
There is no new normal. There is no old normal. First of all, there is
no normal. But how can you explain this in a press release? The only
thing you can explain in a press release is that you can’t shut down
art. So, the pandemic made art curating even more activist. We had
to fight to open the art spaces (Koteyko, Brown, and Crawford 2008;
Larson, Nerlich, and Wallis 2005; Briggs, and Hallin 2007).
VL: So immediately after the pandemic, a lot of galleries started
to erect screens, hand sanitisers at the entrances, even some rather
elaborate and very expensive ventilation systems which mimicked
biohazard safety level 2 (World Health Organization 2004), where the
air on entrance to a space, the air is very rapidly sucked upwards and
downwards into grills thus helping to ensure that the air inside the
space is clear in relation to the air outside of the space. I decided to
take a different approach.
K-130: Also, it changed the connection between art and reality.
We started to be focused, especially myself, on transformation, on
the connection, on relations. We realised that we don’t need to be on
the border between art and not art. We started to think about senses,
what kind of perception would be the best - fitted in the best way to
everything that is happening right now.
AN: We had to become experts in bioterror. Experts in biosecurity.
Experts in biotechnology. Experts in anything that could allow us to be
prepared to guarantee a sense of psychological and physical security
and to guarantee that transcendence, that is required to feel, when
you come together in an art space (Vázquez-Espinosa, Laganà, and
Vazquez 2020).
VL: So yeah, as part of the curatorial strategy, I actively try to
encourage multispecies touch to enable multispecies transmission
but at a safe and manageable rate, you know – small elements –
so looking at the transformative potential of mud and sea water
(Basilla 2018) and certain plant species that would be able to allow
us to naturally develop tolerances (Dilston Physic Garden 2020;
The Alnwick Garden 2020). So I stripped the gallery floors back to
bare earth (Bradley 2014), that was standard practice and made
gallery spaces a hybrid between the indoors and the outdoors as

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much as possible (Dornob 2020; Morby 2017; Ravenscroft 2019). I
didn’t see weather as a problem, I saw weather as something that
had to be considered as part of the artwork. I moved many events
outdoors completely. That started to happen more and more, it was
inevitable with the climate anyway. We even took over an airport for
a performance, that was a really interesting experience. It wasn’t
long after the original pandemic that I reached out to the Lo-Tek
architectural movement (Watson 2019) to start to develop ways in
which we could grow future gallery spaces. The first of those are
starting to come to fruition now, we have the Amphigalleries which
are based on the works of architectural based practices such as
those of Charles Jencks (Jencks 2003-2010) and Maya Lin (Lin
1995, 2009) who work with landforms to shape space, and in the
early 2020s I started working with scientists to develop a form of
osmotic skin that responds to airborne entities (Wentzel 2017), with
my colleagues at MOMA in other curatorial departments we were
looking at ways in which we could use this for the body but also in
an architectural context (Oksiuta 2003; Yi 2019; Lohmann 2013).
AV: The artist – she has so many problems, he could not work
on that, it is so hard to be the main reason for the global pandemic, I
cannot imagine to be in this kind of position. And all our departments,
we all had been working together very strongly, especially when it
comes out of this rumour about the presence of something like this
in our space.
SC: Sorry, I need to take a moment I can’t continue with this, with
this in me anymore. As a matter of fact, Ruby, the artist, did know that
the snack that she brought will activate the bioflora in our stomach
to generate the blue viral outbreak effect and so did I. As a matter of
fact, when we met in Greece there was chemistry between me and
Ruby, and he invited me to go to the beach. And on the beach we
were recruited by a bio-terrorist group and ever since underwent a life
training. So, the 2019 outburst was actually planned (ET Online 2020).
But, of course, we made a mistake, because the idea was to erase the
human from the surface of the earth but instead what we produced
was centralised control (Foucault 2008). After she disappeared, after
her/his career was destroyed, I felt lonely and guilty and that gave
me the strength to leave the anarchist bio-terrorist group and enter
Plank 55 - where I’m living now and where it feels home. Sorry I
need to take a minute.
K-130: Paradoxically, this pandemic is the best thing which
could happen to us. Yes, it is strongly provocative to say something
like that, but we need to be a bit provocative in the area of art.
We need to ask questions; we need to get the connection to
understand others. We need to realise that the tree and ourself, this
is the universe. This is a kind of being many (Haraway 2008), this
is a kind of intra-action (Barad 2012). So, what was the moment
of crisis for society at the same moment was the breaking point
for the area of art.
And what do you think is the impact of the
vaccine now that you are preparing Staying
in Touch III?
AN: Well we had to wait two decades for the vaccine, many things
changed. The way we relate to each other changed and now they
are going to change again. Does it work? Is it so good? Can you
guarantee? Are there any contra-effects? It took us so long, I guess
I’ll have to rethink.
K-130: Yes, vaccine, the vaccine, it was also something crucial
- as, actually, the pandemic was. Firstly, everybody thought about a
regular vaccination, so every possible scientist, every possible biolo-
gist started to work on a recipe for the cure. We were observing that,
being partly involved because of our being infected, but scientists at
the same moment realised that the vaccine is not enough, it is not
successful to just make some injections.
VL: Well, obviously the virus and the vaccine have revolutionised
the way I work. I am part of some things which it is slightly difficult to
talk about now, but... I can say that MAG: the Multispecies Aesthetic
Group? I’m in discussions with them to develop a new model which
moves beyond the gallery entirely to bringing art experience into the
wider environment more generally. The Multi-species Aesthetic Group
aims to consider the idea of aesthetics not only across environments
but across species in a much broader and more comprehensive way
than I think has ever been tackled before, so art not only becomes a
part of the workplace, it becomes a part of the home, it becomes a part
of the infrastructure of a city, it becomes part of the environment in
an all-encompassing and really comprehensive way (Artist Placement
Group, n.d.).
SC: Now, 2039, here in Plank 55 we have officially despised
the vaccination to avoid chip implants (Anthonisen 2020) and also
because we believe that is something conservative, as it insists in
our 3-dimensional bodily reality.
AV: In 2029 that was a challenge. How do we bring people into the
space, when we do not know how this is transmitted? So, we have
to take care that it is not possible to get through air, through touch,
through smell – through all these different kinds of body sensorium
perceptions. You know, at the end of the day, when they came out
with this story of the beginning of the whole global pandemic in
our little gallery space, which paradoxically - or maybe we could
even say ironically - that we called, Staying in Touch in 2019 - was
very challenging. I have to say that I’m just so pleased that all of
the departments agreed that we would do another exhibition 2049.
I think is great to see how we can navigate these previous 2019
visions - implement all that we learned in between and do something
extraordinary in 2049.
AN: Each person that visited Staying in Touch in its two previous
versions has a different story, so I’m planning to promote the indivi-
dual experience. I’m planning to collect the personal stories of our

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audience, of our public, of our visitors and to make them part of this
long line already. Thirty years - it will be - telling the story which
started before the pandemic, went all through it and finally it’s free
of it, free! How do you promote when you have freedom?
VL: And I’m really excited to say that I am now working closely
with genetic variation activists Lulu and Nana (Musunuru 2019). Back
in 2035 when we formed the International Multispecies Aesthetic
Group Evolution (IMAGE) – and we’ve been working since then to
promote genetic diversity and variation through art projects. Obviously,
Adam Zaretsky is one of IMAGE’s most well-known collaborators
(Zaretsky 2020).
K-130: We don’t need to be vaccinated; it is enough to be connec-
ted on a proper level. Nobody and nothing is strange right now. This
connection is the most beautiful thing, so we realised that thanks to
that scientific discovery that the area of art needs to be transformed
as well. That is why science and art got transformed to be connected
and inseparable. What happened in the area of science happened
at the same time in the area of art. It produced the current situation.
The optimal situation? I am not able to say. I am not able to predict
because we are transforming everything, right now and every day.
The tree has been transformed as well so it is not a start of infection
anymore. Our touch right now is not dangerous. Touch has been
transformed to be the basis of the cure. I am a kind of a vector - I am
hugging people, giving them also the possibility to hug each other,
creating art thanks to that.
AV: In one way I think it is very poetic. Staying in Touch is changing
exactly this: ‘touch’. For 2049, the Department of Art-Intra-Action is wor-
king also on how to recalibrate experience. This means we try to hack
our neural systems. For humans and non-humans, because we think that
exhibitions are for everybody, it’s the same for forests and oceans, we
are all exchanging our different environments (Uexkull 2014).
SC: For the 2049 Staying in Touch exhibition, I’m very busy de-
signing the Quantum Ovum un-embodied consciousness apparatus
that will be placed at the entrance of the art show. The public will
enter it to be suspended in a chewy matter, while their toes are
connected to the neural umbilical roots (Davis 2019; Horn 2020;
Wachowski, and Wachowski 1999). This system will supply a breath
that will shut down their vision and will entangle, read, codify, disin-
tegrate and dematerialise their bodies, while their consciousness
will be tele-transported to the map web of the art show (Hall 2018).
Here the mind of the art show guide, whose body will be previously
disintegrated, will wait for them to conduct the exhibition tour. The
codified bodies are stored as giga-bytes in the art show quantum
computers. At the end of the show the process is reversed. A second
breath is provided by the umbilical roots, coding the bodies back by
reassembling their particles and reincarnating their consciousness,
if everything goes well.
AV: The new exhibitions will help us to see, to learn, to understand
how to be changed and transformed through diligent, diverse practice
of the view that is left with experiencing the different levels of our
culture.
Do you think art is essential?
VL: Well the future of MOMA moves entirely beyond the gallery as
formal space. Working with the other departments we have some
really exciting new developments which will take the viewing of art
to a level never before experienced. People will still come together,
to visit MOMA, but the gallery no longer really exists. The future of
art is pure experience.
K-130: If art is essential...? Yes, I would say it is, but like
everything else used to be. I think right now we are facing the
moment when art and reality are perfectly matched. I am an artist,
I am a curator, I am a vector, I am also a transgenic organism.
So yes, art is essential for myself because it is a part of myself.
But it is also essential for the tree being presented and being not
presented anymore. Right now, it is enough to feel the connection
with the tree, we don’t need an object anymore. You are asking
me if it means that art is dead. Well, maybe, actually I would say it
is - but it is not a big deal.
AV: Art is definitely one of the essentials. Let’s live in the new
world, of a human and non-human neurological condition in which one
or more sensorium modalities will be exchanged, shaped, reshaped
and used for better good, for each other.
K-130: The moment of creation is actually here the moment of
decision. You need to decide that you want to be transformed and
you are ready for that, and if you are, let me hug you. My goal is just
to improve the way of connection and the quality of the connection.
Don’t think too much about art, which is dead, move forward.
AN: If art is essential? Honestly? I would rather die than live in
a world where art spaces are closed. So, you bet it is. It is essential
to me!
VL: Art is everything.
SC: [Note: The interview with Soladite Carnelian was interrupted
abruptly at this point and she enters what can be perceived as an
altered state of mind. She utilises some of her devices to undergo
what would be her exile ritual from Plank 55 (maybe to reach a new
condition half human/animal, as shown in her snake eye closing this
documentary). Wearing her anti-body recognition camouflaging suit,
she then disappears from the camera. Apparently, she has escaped
from under the earth and her location is still unknown.]
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Artnodes, no. 27 (2021) I ISSN 1695-5951
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Isabel Burr Raty
Artist and filmmaker
Isabel Burr Raty (BE/CL) is an artist and filmmaker working between
Brussels and Amsterdam. She is interested in exploring the intersti-
ces between the organic and the artificial, between the unlicensed
knowledge of minority groups and the dominant narratives. She teaches
Media Art History in École de Recherche Graphique, is researcher
in Nadine-WAB V Brussels, and invited jury member in Autonomous
Design Master KASK Gent in 2019-2020. In 2018-2019 she obtained
the bio-art/design AFK 3 Package-Deal Grant, which partnered her to
Waag and Mediamatic Amsterdam. Her artworks intertwine live art and
new media installations, inviting audiences to queer fixed categories of
production understandings, and to experience the benefits of embod-
ying SF in real time, such as the Beauty Kit Female Farm. Her works
and collaborations have been shown internationally, ie: Palais de Tokyo
Paris, Royal Flemish Theater, ISEA Hong Kong, Eco-Futures London.
With the support of Media fund, Isabel is developing her second film,
exposing the impact of colonialism on Easter Island’s Rapa Nui people.
Website: https://www.isabel-burr-raty.com/
Dalila Honorato
Ionian University, Greece
Dalila Honorato, PhD, is Tenured Assistant Professor in Aesthetics and
Visual Semiotics, Ionian University, Greece, and collaborator at the
Center of Philosophy of Sciences, Univ. Lisbon, Portugal. Cofounder
of the Interactive Arts Lab, she is the head of the interdisciplinary
conference “Taboo-Transgression-Transcendence in Art & Science”,
and, together with Marta de Menezes, the conceptualiser and developer
of the project “FEMeeting: Women in Art, Science and Technology”. She
is a full member of the Board of Directors of the “Municipal Gallery of
Corfu” (2020-2023). She was a guest speaker at: the festival Extrava-
gant Bodies: Extravagant Love (Croatia); ASFA Lectures Series, Athens
School of Fine Arts (Greece); a.pass Research Center (Belgium); CIAC,
Univ. Algarve (Portugal); Coalesce Center for Biological Art, Univ. Buffalo
(USA); BioDesign Seminar Series, Parsons (USA); the symposium Arts
Based Research in Times of Climate and Social Change, CNSI - UCLA
(USA); Penny Stamps, University of Michigan (USA), etc.
Website: https://inarts.eu/en/lab/staff/honorato/

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Louise Mackenzie
Independent artist
info@loumackenzie.com
Louise Mackenzie is an artist working across contemporary visual art
practice, new media (bio) art, film and sound. Her research explores
the more-than-human concept of lively material through process-based
and participatory art practice and feminist science studies. She is a
member of the Cultural Negotiation of Science research group, Nor-
thumbria University, an Associate of the Institute of Genetic Medicine,
Newcastle University and holds a PhD in Fine Art from BxNU, a BALTIC
CCA and Northumbria University partnership. Louise has spoken at
RE:SOUND 2019, Denmark, TransImage2018 Edinburgh, ISEA2017
Colombia, ISEA2016 Hong Kong, Leonardo LASER London and So-
nic Environments 2016 Brisbane. Her works have been exhibited at
Pomona Museum of Art (USA), Unhallowed Arts (Australia), Charles
Darwin House (London), the National Library of Spain (Madrid), Lu-
miere (Durham), Summerhall (Edinburgh), BALTIC CCA and BALTIC39
(Newcastle), Bond House (London), Basement 6 Collective (Shanghai)
and National Taiwan University of the Arts (Taiwan).
Website: http://www.loumackenzie.com/
Robertina Šebjanič
Independent artist
Robertina Šebjanič (SI), based in Ljubljana, is an internationally exhi-
bited and awarded artist. Her art-research focus has for several years
been centred around cultural, (bio)political, chemical and biological
realities of aquatic environments, which serves as a starting point to
investigate and tackle the philosophical questions on the intersection of
art, technology and science. Her ideas and concepts are often realised
in collaboration with others, through interdisciplinary and informal
integration in her work. She was awarded with Honorary Mention at
Prix Ars Electronica 2016, a STARTS2016 nomination and a nomination
for the White Aphroid award. Robertina was SHAPE platform 2017
artist. She has been resident artist / researcher: 2018 at Ars Electronica
(EMARE / EMAP), 2019 at RV Celtic Explorer in frame of the Aerial/
Sparks project, Galway 2020. Her work of art Aurelia 1+Hz / proto viva
generator (artist proof) has since 2019 been part of the BEEP Electronic
Art Collection, Spain.
Website: https://robertina.net/

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Artnodes, no. 27 (2021) I ISSN 1695-5951
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Karolina Żyniewicz
University of Warsaw
Karolina Żyniewicz is an artist (2009 graduated from the Academy of
Fine Arts in Łódź, Department of Visual Arts) and researcher, PhD stu-
dent (Nature-Culture Transdisciplinary PhD Program at Artes Liberales
Faculty, University of Warsaw). Working in a laboratory (mostly at the
Institute of Genetics and Biotechnology, Faculty of Biology, University
of Warsaw) locates her works in the field of bio art, although she tries
to avoid using this term. She sees her liminal activity as situated
knowledge production. She is mostly focused on life in its broad unders-
tanding (its biological and cultural meaning). Her projects have mostly
conceptual, critical character. The main point of her PhD research
interest are multilevel relations emerging during realisation of liminal
projects. She tries to put her observations, as an artist/researcher
(liminal being), in the context of Science and Technology Studies (STS)
Actor-Network Theory by Bruno Latour and feminist humanities.
Website: http://karolinazyniewicz.com/
CV