One way of apprehending Earth and its ecosystems is through the medium of vibration. All living and non-living matter contains energy, a force that connects every particle of the Universe—be it a blade of grass, a stone, an insect, a human body or a comet. For the spider, its Umwelt is one of vibration. Essentially blind, the web-building spider creates an image of the world with the vibrational tremors it sends and receives through the web, functioning as an instrument for transmission and reception.

Together with spiders and their webs, scientists, and those who engage situated knowledges, Tomás Saraceno and the project-community Arachnophilia has expanded possibilities for inter- and intra-species relations. The site-specific artwork Play-Ground: Spider/web vibration, divination… for the terrestrial and cosmic web(s) of life translates onto the ground the vibrations of Holocnemus pluchei, Steatoda bipunctata, and other spiders, opening possibilities for attuning to non-human ways of being.

Developed in conversation with Arachnophilia member Roland Mühlethaler, Play-Ground is a walk-in installation where cobblestones shake according to frequencies of the spiders’ and cosmic web. If playgrounds are places where we learn through play, this area offers other lessons in planetary re/creation.

Play-Ground, was developed for and first exhibited as part of the 2024 exhibition Radical Playgrounds: From Competition to Collaboration organized by Berliner Festspiele at Gropius Bau. Thank you to the curators Joanna Warsza and Benjamin Foerster-Baldenius for their trust and belief in the work.