e2920

“It has become like a mantra to me: we need to learn to think differently about the kind of subjects we have already become and the processes of deep-seated transformation we are undergoing. ” R. Braidotti

EMISSARY 2920 was a participatory, pervasive, multiplatform futures work delivered to local Narrm/Melbourne audiences during the COVID19 lockdowns of 2020. Using a toolkit delivered by post, participants were guided to reposition viral bodies as vital agents and collaborators in the stories of our times, and interrogate what viral entities have to teach human cultures about imagined borders, interspecies relations and inclusive, plural and just futures for all life on earth.

Over two weeks, participants were guided to recover their memories of the future and embark on field work in their role as volunteer Emissaries for the future Institute of Human and Viral relations (est.2919) Using hand-delivered ‘CAPSID’ packages, an online portal, gif art, text messages and a 1300 phone service, Emissaries gathered cultural data, enacted somatic experiments, performed mediative and reflective exercises in collaboration with COVID-19, exploring pertinant pandemic themes of grief, mortality, transcorporeality, interdependence, temporality and eco-monsterous haunting.

Particpants returned their findings by post to a postal box, which will be uncovered by the Institute founders in a private archive in year 2901.

The extended research that informed this work was presented at ASLEC ANZ 2021 Conference Beyond Human Scales as Viral re-worlding: Contagious collaborators and shared futures beyond COVID-19, and a subsequent paper was published in Swamphen Journal of Cultural Ecology vol 10.

E2920 was presented in Melbourne Fringe Festival in 2020, and was supported by the Fringe Cash for Creatives Grant. It was produced by Steph Spiers, featured sound art by Jake Steele and Glitch art by Sabato Visconti.