DATA GARDEN

A virtual tour at Onassis Stegi: Would it be possible for our digital data to be hosted in a garden, in a secret network in the center of the city? Small, invisible plants (known under the scientific name micromeria acropolitana) are planted exclusively on the Acropolis rock and accommodate digital memory in their DNA.

Enter the magic of a Data Garden from 9th until 20th September on onassis.org.

Can anyone think of the future of connectivity beyond surveillance, minimizing the consequences of technological infrastructures on the natural environment? Is it possible for the bond between human and non-human worlds on this planet to be substituted? Can plants, as organisms on which life itself is depended, contribute to the creation and adoption of new practices for the mediated reality? Kyriaki Goni’s new multimedia installation investigates this set of questions by recounting a fictitious narrative that contains elements of truth.

This up-and-coming artist’s new multimedia installation, originally programmed to be presented in March 2020, is being installed in the Onassis Stegi Exhibition Hall and can be visited virtually from September 9 to 20 on onassis.org. And with “Data Garden”, Onassis Stegi is also taking part in the most important digital media festival in the world – Ars Electronica 2020 “In Kepler’s Gardens”, to be held online from September 9 to 13, 2020.

The starting point of this work is the recent scientific research on the data storage capacity of the living organisms’ genetic material, as well as on the challenges and moral dilemmas concurrently posed. The artist invites the audience to envision a network of plants on the Acropolis rock, in which digital information is circulated and stored. The network is protected by a community of users who in this way maintain the self-disposal of their data. As the storage space transitions from the “cloud” to the earth, and as control passes from the companies to the users, the life circle of data follows that of a plant, fostering a relation of interdependence and care. In a peculiar garden, users become the plants’ gardeners, whereas plants in their turn become gardeners of the stored information.

The story unfolds through drawings, prints, videos, sound pieces, and interviews with scientists from the respective fields, and reveals the connections between digital memory and the climate crisis, exploring possible recourses and strategies of resistance. “Data Garden” reminds us of the indissoluble and foundational relation between culture and nature, permitting the audience to reflect on the limits of human intervention and activity in the environment.

In her text “From Cloud to Earth”, curator and writer Daphne Dragona notes: “In her piece “Data Garden,” Kyriaki Goni purposefully interweaves fictitious elements and facts. The use of a hypothetical scenario and the appropriation of elements drawn from a scientific discipline that is currently under development, invite the audience to reflect upon the possible changes triggered by the leverage of DNA as a storage space. For example, the creation of these new, transgenic organisms is by no means detached from questions of ethics. A new condition under which plants become at the same time perceivable as infrastructures holds the danger of a new kind of instrumentalization of nature. The appearance of a new category of “living” infrastructures can possibly become an apple of discord in what concerns the control and ownership over them. However, the story of the piece does not aim at naming possible issues or scaremongering. On the contrary, emphasis seems to be given to the reminder of the indissoluble relation between culture and nature, and to the activation of a dialogue on the character and the boundaries of human intervention and activity. Correlating the architectures of technical networks with networks of nature, next to correlating the intelligence and strategies of a community of users with those of a population of tiny plants, the artwork opens up a discussion on heterarchies, multilingualisms, and symbiopolitics. Revealing the connections between digital memory and climate crisis, “Data Garden” refers to changes that are feasible before the further engineering of nature, while learning from it”.

Credits

Concept, Design & Realization: Kyriaki Goni

Production management: Prodromos Tsiavos, Ηeracles Papatheodorou

Production coordination: Ioanna Margariti

Line production: Irilena Tsami

Produced by: Onassis Stegi

Camera: Alex Dimitriadis

Sound recording voice over: Nikos Konstantinou

Introductory text: Daphne Dragona

AR Programming: George Kairis (enneas.gr)

3D modeling production: Antonis Kalagkatsis

Music: Vassula Delli & Roula Tsernou

Music Performed by: Female vocal ensemble “Pleiades”

Recording & Multi-channel Sound Installatiobn: Aris Delitheos

Lighting consultant: Danilof light + visual perception

Translation & Subtitling: Yourtranslator

Recording Studio: Tone Studio Athens

Digital Fabric Printing Studio: Textum Digital

Printing at Archival Paper: Filmora Photolab

Wall-mounted Frames: Nikos Sdralis

Included in the installation are discussions between

Mél Hogan: Director for the Environmental Media Lab (@EnvMediaLab) and Associate Professor, Communication, Media and Film (CMF), University of Calgary (Canada)

Karin Fister: M.D. University Medical Centre Maribor, Slovenia

Lambros Tsounis: Environmentalist - Oceanographer, MSc Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Environmental Engineering School of Engineering, University of Patras

Edward Perello: Biosecurity consultant, Investor in agricultural biotechnology, London, UK

Artist Bio

Kyriaki Goni is an Athens based artist, researcher and educator. Her work encompasses a wide range of media and it is expressed through expanded and multi-layered installations.

She seeks to connect the local with the global and to critically touch on questions of technology and society interaction, such as privacy and surveillance, control of information, networks and infrastructures, as well as human-machine relationship. She has lately presented two solo shows at Aksioma-Institute of Contemporary Art in Ljubljana and at Drugo More in Rijeka and has been part of exhibitions in galleries and new media festivals internationally, such as Transmediale, Trondheim Biennial, The Glass Room, Melbourne Triennial, Abandon Normal Devices, Tomorrows: Urban fictions for possible futures, ISEA21, SIGGRAPH2016, Impakt etc. In 2019 she was resident to the new program Science Technology Society at Delfina Foundation in London. A continuous and broad dialogue with audiences is a vital part of her practice, therefore her work includes workshops, talks and contributions on digital platforms and journals (“Neural” magazine, issue #65, winter 2020; “Leonardo” journal of The International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology, MIT Press, 49:4). She was recently selected for an art commission by the New Networked Normal (theNNN.eu).

She completed a BA Hons in Visual Arts and an MA in Digital Arts at the ATHENS School of Fine Arts, as well as graduate and postgraduate studies in Social Anthropology at Panteion University (GR) and at Leiden University (NL).

Watch the virtual tour of Data Garden and a discussion with Kyriaki Goni.on September 9th, at 18:00 on the Onassis YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/1T8UaQnOVtI ‘

Find out more about the exhibition on: https://www.onassis.org/whats-on/data-garden