Molten Airs / Ars Electronica Vilnius Garden

Exhibition and speculative workshop series
Alt lab, Vitebsko 23, Vilnius and Online
September 8–12, 2021

Opening: Wednesday, September 8, 7 p.m.

Participants: Kamilė Krasauskaitė, Brigita Kasperaitė, Mindaugas Gapševičius, Andrew Gryf Paterson, Giulia Mattera, Becky Lyon

After our birth, bit by bit we get to know our mother, our father, and our surrounding environment. We learn what we can put in our mouths and what is understood to be inedible. We also get to know about other species that live in our surroundings. As we begin to go to school, we are trained to know that experiences are fictions, that organisms are composed of many cells, and that the molecules of said cells interact with molecules outside of them.

The Molten Airs exhibition and workshop series builds its narratives on casual life processes, repetitive habits, and social practices. By speculating on the human relationship to plants, food, or energy—but also by using methods borrowed from the sciences—the series delves into unknown interactions between small and large, real and fictional, alive and not alive, us and them.

Exhibition

September 8–12, 4 p.m.–8 p.m. Vilnius time
Alt lab, Vitebsko 23, Vilnius

Jewelry
Mindaugas Gapševičius in collaboration with Bon Alog (video), Mantas Mizgiris and Simona Nakrošiūtė (jewelry)
Video, ring

The ring holds within it a small LED powered by the human body. Being very sensitive, the flashing of the LED depends on humidity, temperature, contact to the body, and other parameters that affect the components used for the electric circuit. What are the abilities of humans to generate electric current and, while using it, experience the environment?

Workshop

September 11, 10.00 a.m.–2 p.m. Berlin time
Online. Registration through Ars Electronica website, https://www.eventbrite.at/e/ars-electronica-2021-a-new-digital-deal-tickets-163725520439

You and I, You and Me. September 11
Mindaugas Gapševičius in cooperation with Maria Safronova Wahlström, Ian Erik Stewart

Imagine the future. Humans, computing machines, and various types of hybrids share the space they live in. Senses are altered, some are inextricably linked to computing devices. Electricity is used to control the space and the beings living in it.

Workshop visuals: Luis Bustamante
Workshop scripts: Tuçe Erel

The project is organized by Institutio Media / Alt lab in collaboration with the Ars Electronica Festival and the Lithuanian Interdisciplinary Artists’ Association. It is kindly supported by the Lithuanian Council for Culture and the Nordic Council of Ministers.

Photos: Brigita Kasperaitė