Humans in a Bottle: Material and Immaterial Ecosystems

Presenting their experiences as artists and researchers, Soft Turns question the western scientific compulsion to fully ‘know’ a subject, and the human desire to control one’s environment, which extends beyond the visible into the air around us. Noting parallels in the history of the internet and meteorology, they discuss examples of human intervention in thermodynamic systems such as the failed Biosphere 2 experiment, controlled environment agricultural and space travel research, and the energy intensive data centre industry. Critiquing capitalism’s dependence on extractive, exploitative growth in both material and immaterial dimensions, they argue that in our current climate emergency, investing in strategies to loosen western thinking and control is critical. With examples from their artistic production, they suggest that slowing down, learning from other ways of knowing the world, and looking to plants and other intelligences can all contribute to a reactivation of an empathetic, intimate engagement with our environments.