Symbiosis, or how to make kin in the chthulucene

Abstract

The virtual reality installation Symbiosis (Polymorf 2020) is a performative, multisensory, multiuser, multispecies, and interpassive storytelling experience inspired by Donna Haraway’s book Staying with the Trouble (2016). It offers a speculative world set somewhere 200 years in the future, after a human-caused climate disaster has changed the Earth beyond recognition. The world’s population consists of so-called “children of compost” or “symbionts.” The installation allows six participants to simultaneously embody one of six symbiotic life forms. Each experience comes with a uniquely designed soft robotic wearable enabling participants not only to see, hear, and feel but also to smell and taste their symbiotic experiences. In this way, Symbiosis becomes a passionate imagining of how to make kin in the Chthulucene.