Exposition

Mörk Materia / Dark Matter(s) (2021)

TM
Timo Menke

About this exposition

The practice-based research carried out throughout several projects and assembled in this exposition is structured around a rhizomatic nexus of still ongoing entries into plant-thinking and co-becoming with plants, partly based on photographic, photosynthetic and biosynthetic processes under the project framework Cogito ergo Pisum, partly based on archival findings, found footage, phenomena and related discourse. "Cogito, ergo sum" is a philosophical statement in Latin by René Descartes, usually translated into English as "I think, therefore I am". The phrase originally appeared in French as je pense, donc je suis in his Discourse on the Method, to reach a wider audience. Connecting and collapsing the notion of thinking with plants – or in this case gray peas of the species Pisum sativum var. arvense, transposed into "Cogito ergo Pisum" – is at the heart of this research. Within the project I am researching, developing and cross-breeding a flora of transdisciplinary experiments, new material studies and processes, that revolve around ways of rethinking, creating for and becoming with other life forms. Photographic, biosynthetic and agricultural methodologies are being used in Cogito ergo Pisum to both analyze and synthesize new ecologies. On the basis of horizontal (gene) transfer, hybridity and hospitality, a number of agents, patients and symbionts have been subject to material-semiotic and transgenic inquiries: Timo the artist and Timo the grey pea — bioart experiments involving horizontal transfer of my DNA to a grey pea cultivar (Pisum sativum var.arvense). Pisum Sativum used by Gregor Mendel in 1856 when unfolding many of the rules of heredity, now referred to as the laws of Mendelian inheritance, constitute a key plant in "Cogito ergo Pisum". Epidermodysplasia verruciformis, also known as Tree Man Syndrome, an extremely rare autosomal recessive genetic hereditary skin disorder, and Foliate heads, also known as Green men, constitute a highly symbolic reading of a hybrid plant-human being. Several works and results of the processes active in Cogito ergo Pisum have been installed in a number of exhibitions, many of which are ongoing or infinite by nature; presented in open archival or horizontal hybrid structures with documents, negative cyanotype photograms, wall drawings and lab notes on paper, mail correspondence, facsimile of illustrated manuscripts, and cultivations of growing grey pea seeds. Some of them, including literature, phenomena, found footage and historical events have later made it into the polyphonic performance reading "Mörk Materia / Dark Matter(s)", which has been adapted and reconfigured to the contexts it has been performed in. Using photographic and moving images, documents, objects, drawings and plant cultivations I am approaching, renegotiating and speculating about our common nature-culture, to both highlight and transform an increasingly dark matter: body, earth, space.
typeresearch exposition
keywordsdark matter, Dark Ecology, photogram, biopolitics, cyanotype, vegetal, horizontal transfer, OOO, Tree man, cultivation, Timothy Morton, Anna Atkins, green men, New Materialism, Semiotics, Roland Barthes
date30/01/2021
published21/05/2021
last modified21/05/2021
statuspublished
share statusprivate
copyrightTimo Menke
licenseCC BY-NC-ND
languageEnglish
urlhttps://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/829675/1122602
doihttps://doi.org/10.22501/ruu.829675
published inRUUKKU - Studies in Artistic Research
portal issue16. Working with Vegetal


Simple Media

id name copyright license
831037 Gregor Mendel https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz Public domain
831087 Mörk Materia Extro Timo Menke All rights reserved
831090 Textbox Timo Menke All rights reserved
831093 Textbox Timo Menke All rights reserved
831382 Textbox Timo Menke All rights reserved
831407 Cyanotypi SAOL SAOL All rights reserved
831699 3D dark matter map Unknown All rights reserved
831701 Dark matter pie chart Unknown All rights reserved
831704 Dark Matter Pie Chart Unknown All rights reserved
831779 World's 4th Tree Man Wikipedia All rights reserved
832203 Dark Ecology (Book cover) Timothy Morton All rights reserved
832351 Credits Timo Menke All rights reserved
832406 Creditbox Timo Menke All rights reserved
1126282 Transparent textbox with pink shadow Timo Menke All rights reserved
1126999 The first panorama from the far side of the moon International Astronomical Union. CC BY
1127023 Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions Public Domain Public domain
1130223 Concert with Grey Pea NGB4018 Timo Timo Menke All rights reserved
1130401 Mörk Materia / Dark Matter(s) Performance Timo Menke All rights reserved
1130421 Gray Pea cultivation Pisum sativum var. arvense NGB4018 Timo Menke All rights reserved
1130494 Gray Pea "Timo" (Soundtrack by Lerin / Hystad) Timo Menke All rights reserved
1131528 Cyanotopia 1 Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270270 Pisum (Electronic sign board) Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270272 Night side earth city lights footage 084135857 04 https://www.pond5.com All rights reserved
1270273 Pisum (Electronic sign board) Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270274 Night side earth city lights footage 084135857 04 https://www.pond5.com All rights reserved
1270279 NordGen NGB4018 "Timo" (cultivation view) 2017-05-29 Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270280 Night side earth city lights footage 084135857 04 https://www.pond5.com All rights reserved
1270281 Tårvätska och tårkörtel Wikipedia All rights reserved
1270285 Punktskriftsalfabet Unknown All rights reserved
1270286 Night side earth city lights footage 084135857 04 https://www.pond5.com All rights reserved
1270288 Cyanotopia on found Passepartout 01 Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270289 Cyanotopia on found Passepartout 02 Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270290 Cyanotopia on found Passepartout 03 Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270291 Cyanotopia on found Passepartout 04 Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270292 Cyanotopia on found Passepartout 05 Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270293 Cyanotopia on found Passepartout 06 Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270294 Cyanotopia on found Passepartout 07 Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270295 Cyanotopia on found Passepartout 08 Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270296 Night side earth city lights footage 084135857 04 https://www.pond5.com All rights reserved
1270297 Cotton sprout onboard Chang’e 4 (transmitted image from dark side of the moon) Unknown All rights reserved
1270300 De köpte ett bergrum i Söderhamn och började odla 1 Sveriges Radio All rights reserved
1270301 Night side earth city lights footage 084135857 04 https://www.pond5.com All rights reserved
1270303 Mörk Materia / Dark Matter(s) Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270304 Night side earth city lights footage 084135857 04 https://www.pond5.com All rights reserved
1270307 Tree Man Syndrome (installed photo frame object) Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270308 Night side earth city lights footage 084135857 04 https://www.pond5.com All rights reserved
1270310 Night side earth city lights footage 084135857 02 https://www.pond5.com All rights reserved
1270311 Night side earth city lights footage 084135857 01 Unknown All rights reserved
1270312 Night side earth city lights footage 084135857 05 https://www.pond5.com All rights reserved
1270313 Night side earth city lights footage 084135857 03 https://www.pond5.com All rights reserved
1270314 Single-sided Möbius strip (green) Peter Banzer / MPI for the Science of Light All rights reserved
1270315 Night side earth city lights footage 084135857 04 https://www.pond5.com All rights reserved
1270317 Green Men tattoo (Villard de Honnecourt) Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270318 Green Men tattoo (Villard de Honnecourt) Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270319 Green Men Tattoo Stickers Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270320 Green Men (wall drawing) Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270321 Night side earth city lights footage 084135857 04 https://www.pond5.com All rights reserved
1270322 Pisum (Electronic sign board) Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270323 NordGen NGB4018 "Timo" (cultivation view) 2017-05-29 Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270324 Night side earth city lights footage 084135857 04 https://www.pond5.com All rights reserved
1270325 Punktskriftsalfabet Unknown All rights reserved
1270326 Photographs of British Algae - Cyanotype Impressions 1 Anna Atkins All rights reserved
1270327 Cotton sprout onboard Chang’e 4 (transmitted image from dark side of the moon) Unknown All rights reserved
1270328 Mörk Materia / Dark Matter(s) Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270329 Tree Man Syndrome (installed photo frame object) Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270330 Single-sided Möbius strip (inverted) Peter Banzer / MPI for the Science of Light All rights reserved
1270331 Green Men (wall drawing, installation view) Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270332 Pisum (Electronic sign board) Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270271 Mörk Materia Intro Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270275 Mörk Materia Cogito ergo pisum Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270278 Mörk Materia Pisum NGB 4018 Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270282 Mörk Materia Punctum 1 Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270283 Mörk Materia Punctum 2 Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270284 Mörk Materia Punctum 3 Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270287 Mörk Materia Anna Atkins Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270298 Mörk Materia Mörk biosfär 3 Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270299 Mörk Materia Mörk biosfär 1 Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270302 Mörk Materia Materia och Material Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270305 Mörk Materia Tree Man Syndrome Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270309 Mörk Materia Dark Ecology Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270316 Mörk Materia Bladmannen Timo Menke All rights reserved
1270276 SESTO - NGB - sesto - The Nordic Gene Bank NGB4018 NordGen All rights reserved
1270277 SV Fråga ang ärtor Timo Menke, Ulrika Carlson-Nilsson NordGen - Nordiskt Genresurscenter All rights reserved
1270306 Tree Man Syndrome (video) Broadcast excerpt All rights reserved

RUUKKU portal comments: 1
nimetön/anonym/anonymous 24/05/2021 at 09:47

This is an edited version of the peer review comment, which the author has used as an aid when finalising their exposition:



Does the exposition fit the theme of the issue?


The exposition responds to the theme of the issue in several ways. As its title suggests, the notion of dark matter is central as a claim to embrace unknown relations that may partly account for humanity’s limited understanding of vegetal life, of the universe, and the contingency of things. It could be said that the work revolves around the statement found on the section “Materia och mörker”, which I translate: We perceive a dark materiality - a nature of the world, which includes everything and everyone who perceives it, an impossibility to finally make a difference, on where we end, and they begin. The grey pea Timo goes towards such a dark materiality, something that escapes our gaze, which is difficult to put into words, and which contains only a small amount of visible matter. The dark materiality includes the unwanted, the hidden, the forgotten, and the ambivalent, that which is subject and object about each other.”


Which aspects of the exposition are of particular import?


The best about the exposition is the open-endedness proposed by a heterotopian scheme that goes through eclectic material weaving together the human and the vegetal. In spite of its eclecticism, this is done in a “section by section” manner, using one-image compositions with links and reading aids through sound that makes the exposition accessible. Thematically, of particular import in this sense is the staging of the becoming Timo of the human and of the becoming Timo of the pea. Also, the evolutionary aspect of the possibility of survival of the human species with the help of DNA from the plant kingdom sustains the symbolic-symbiotic thread of the work.


Is the exposition of interest as artistic research?


The play with the symbolic and symbiotic holds the “artistic” thread in potentia: open, to continue to be activated. Part of the strength of the exposition lies in the mode of referencing through experiential accounts weaved together with scientific references. The activation of written information through sound media as an artistic device resonates with the layering of meaning. This is a practice that challenges ontological and epistemological notions that can be further developed through research and the multimedia and symbolic extension of the work.


How does the exposition illuminate the relationship between artistic practice and research?


As mentioned, the play with the symbolic and symbiotic holds the “artistic” thread in potentia: open, to continue to be activated. This is somehow the “promise” of this exposition, a signalling of further artistic work to come (by having set up a fertile agenda) rather than the achievement of accomplished work. In light of the latest understanding of vegetal life and enactive approaches to cognition, the practices of the exposition (in its current proposition) are of relevance since they resonate across the scientific-artistic spectrum.


Does the exposition design and navigation support the (artistic) proposition?

 

In spite of its eclecticism, the navigation of the exposition works through a “section by section” manner, with one-image compositions with links and reading aids through sound that makes the exposition accessible. The hyperlinks to further archives and work contribute to the transparency of the research. Yet, it has the potential to use video, sound, or photography (for example of vegetal chemical compounds) to further sensitize or attune the viewer of the exposition to the theme of dark matter and the more specific theme of the vegetal. At the moment, the existing artistic work is “backgrounded”, made less prominent and more difficult to relate to. What becomes foregrounded in the exposition is the train of thought and strands of history and personal dialogues with scientific expertise in the field.

 

Your Conclusions

 

I understood this exposition as probing, as exploratory ground for further research, rather than as finished or accomplished work; what I mentioned as “the promise” of this exposition, a signalling of further artistic work to come (by having set up a fertile agenda). As such, and as a strength, the exposition is effective and invites to the development of its many entries through all kind of practices. As a weakness, it needs to further develop its potential (its use of video, or sound, or the visualization of vegetal chemical compounds for example) in relation to the theme of dark matter and the more specific theme of the vegetal. In my understanding, the existing artistic work is “backgrounded” and made less prominent in this exposition. All in all, its open-endedness and its nonlinear agenda are strengths, and the personal and scientific registers of the work make it a valuable contribution to “working the vegetal”. 

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