SENTIENT

Sentient (2017) is an immersive bioart and multimedia installation intertwined with time-lapse video, looping meditative sound and light effects that engages both organic material and natural phenomena, such as growing, decomposing and sporulating (producing spores), thus becoming immortal.

Sentient is composed of many acellular, bright yellow Physarum polycephalum cultures fed with oats and growing in enclosed containers within a semi-dark environment - Sentient has a life of its own.

The Sentient habitat is subtly animated by a natural, self-regulating process in which the organic cells grow and transform themselves, and by an Arduino controlled LED lighting system that gradually dims and brightens to best reveal the wondrous, branching growth of the cell.

Sentient aims to enchant by staging unexpected and intimate encounters with matter, and by reflecting on organic spatial intelligence. In an alchemic interplay of positive and negative attractions, including a pungent synthesised odour from the creature, Sentient aligns human and nonhuman responsiveness with an environmental awareness.

This work also anticipates the future direction of Ferracin’s research: the observation of smart living organisms capable of adapting to their surroundings and creating synergies within environments, and of phenomena that can contribute to an eco-phenomenological awareness by stimulating organic knowledge with an emphasis on sensory responses.