Clusters of Competencies

Inhaling CO₂ may lead to anxiety and death. Between madness and reality, the cluster explores the psychonomic and -economic dynamics that affect decarbonisation and, conversely, CO₂’s psychological profile. Business meta-layers of innovation, fuel ideologies, behavioral finance and speculation ask for reciprocal relationships between CO₂ and our mind, body, and metaphysical well-being. What happens to our consciousness if CO₂ stops being produced and is dispersed in the subsurface? Can we keep it sequestred in the deep underworld?

The cluster researches the elusive quality of breathable, touched, used and re-used materials. It focuses on the spiritual aspect of materiality through animistic and shamanic approaches that reference CO₂ and the resulting alienation from a holistic use of materials technology. Referring to post-humanist and new materialism concepts, the Intangible Material Agency asks to redefine the complexity of subjective space and the articulated ramification of its interconnections. Materials are agents capable of transporting human perception into a multi-sensorial augmented comprehension that raises questions such as: Do molecules and chemical compounds have feelings, and if so, how can they express them? Is the augmented human perception sufficient to confirm molecules’ feelings, and can we recalibrate multidimensional tools to perceive them?

The cluster engages in a performative exploration of mental, spiritual, and other unquantifiable human relations to the non-human world. CO₂ spans geological eras and connects past, present, and future biospheres. It’s a phantom, yet real, whether we believe it or not. However, our beliefs are crucial to the planetary relationship between humans and CO₂ and how this connection affects living and non-living systems on the planet. The registry of future beliefs maps resounding stories, magick, and other multidimensional echoes of our engagement with CO₂. Can we capture the spells of carbon dioxide and our belief systems about the future?

This cluster explores the generation of CO₂ in the stomach during digestion. Infection, trauma, and illnesses like diaphragmatic hernia can exert internal pressure on the lungs and heart. CO₂ transforms into an obstructive agent, impeding the respiratory process. Does the sensation of suffocating in the body parallel the planet’s suffocation caused by accumulated CO₂ in the atmosphere? What is the reciprocal relationship between individual troubles and the earth, and can self-observation mirror the planetary crisis? The cluster seeks to uncover the interconnectedness of personal experiences with the broader ecological systems and the necessary efforts to sustain an autopoietic life. 

This cluster delves into the nexus between CO₂’s embodiment and topographical choreography. With its dual role as a life-giver within the human body and a harbinger of climate-induced environmental changes, the molecule allows us to trace its journey. From its creation in the body, exhalation, and eventual capture, purification, penetration, and sequestration deep underground, CO₂‘s transition embodies the intricate movement of molecules both in people and the landscape. What is the spatial narrative of this character, which is intertwined with human health and environmental processes? How can we bridge the microcosm of bodily functions with the macrocosm of ecological impacts?