01229 825085
Art Gene, Bath Street, Barrow-in-Furness,
Cumbria, LA14 5TY England, UK
DREAMS OF VERMI-COMPUTING & OTHER MONSTERS
Dreams of Vermi-Computing & Other Monsters is a project that moves between experimental text, video, sculpture and code, to explore the symbolic role of worms in ecological, technical, and imagined situations.
Created by multidisciplinary artist GWENBA, it draws on vermi-composting, the process of farming earthworms to create compost, and brain-machine interfaces, devices or programmes that can translate brain activity into other data or functions. In a combination of both processes, this project acts as a WORM malware – an invasive, self-replicating entity designed to reveal the repressed and discarded parts of ourselves.
By confronting our inner monstrosities, GWENBA explores the relationship between organic technology, decay, desire and metamorphosis; embracing decomposition as a form of renewal.
Installation images
+–COMPOST–+
In an age of increasing surveillance and the oversaturation of information; where the future of brain-machine interfaces loom – what does it mean to inhabit our own minds, and break free from limitations?
” < WORM > ” attempts to disrupt binary distinctions by reimagining the interplay between the organic and inorganic; a digestion of ecological cycles
[vermi-composting], inner reflection, and malware.
(works best on desktop; instruction video at the end of page)
GWENBA takes inspiration from Marina Warner’s Fantastic Metamorphoses, Other Worlds. In the chapter, Hatching – Monsters, Warner traces the etymology of “monster” to the Latin monstrum, meaning both an omen and a thing revealed (monstrare: to show). Monsters, she argues, mark thresholds, between the self and other, human and non-human, chaos and order.
Like Warner’s analysis of mythological figures such as the Hydra, Chimera, and Medusa, Dreams of Vermi-Computing and Other Monsters examines the symbolic weight of metamorphosis, fear, and transformation through worms taking on the role of the monster.
As decomposers, worms also exist in thresholds, dissolving boundaries between flesh and soil, waste and sustenance, past and future. Their blind, writhing forms evoke anxieties about dissolution and loss of control, while at the same time being agents of renewal. This tension – between decay and rebirth, repulsion and desire – resonates with Warner’s reading of monstrosity as a force of both destruction and creation.
GWENBA’s software enacts this paradox through its viral, self-replicating form, forcing interactions with digital decay and the instability of information. Just as monstrous bodies in folklore and literature provoke fear but also transformation, Dreams of Vermi-Computing and Other Monsters inhabits the space between horror and revelation, urging us to reconsider what it means to be consumed, transformed, and reborn.
For Torn Together Dreams of Vermi-computing & Other Monsters was shown alongside two other video works in an Online Screening.
Elements from this exhibition, and the rest of our programme, will be shared across our digital platforms. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to make sure you don’t miss out.
GWENBA
GWENBA is an emerging multidisciplinary artist, designer, writer, filmmaker and curator based in Cardiff. Their work explores connection through a fascination with ecology, organisms and cyber-folkloric storytelling. – – — non-somatic-touch, the soil and waters (and all the things that grow inside them). BioMORPHIC audio-visual artefacts from ancient futures = data x [♡]. They work with the unconscious through text, video, sound, sculpture, painting, performance and installation work. x ̊. ୭ ̊○◦ ̊.