Gut Feelings, 2019. 1000 Ecologies, Le Commun, Geneva, Switzerland
A gut feeling, or intuition, is information that is processed in the brain not rationally but on a subjective/emotional level and tied to a bodily response. Considering the connection between the microbiome, gut and brain, what knowledge can be created through more-than-human interactions within the gut?
Gut Feelings is a research-based project informed by rapidly developing research on the microbiome that challenges the self-contained body and binary categories like subject/object, human/nonhuman and mind/body. For the past 4 years, I have been working with various microorganisms: fermenting, consuming, observing, accumulating, manipulating, and then presenting my research through performance and experimental formats. My current research relates to questions surrounding wider notions of symbiosis, hierarchies in the classification of life, care and imbalances in power, contamination and vulnerability, the gut and intuition, and embodied knowledge. Working through collaborations, with both human and other agents, and direct material engagement I want to find the generative potential within our reactions to difference.
I present an installation representing my ongoing interdisciplinary research and including living elements such as vermicompost, fermented food and inquiries into my own gut microbiome while examining the links between these in terms of symbiosis, viscosity and affect.
With support from the Canada Council for the Arts and Hackuarium
