Webs of Life

 

 

 

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2021, Serpentine Gallery, London, England · Curated by Rebecca Lewin

Serpentine and Acute Art present Webs of Life, a project by artist Tomás Saraceno with Arachnophilia.

Saraceno encourages us to move away from a fear of spiders (arachnophobia) and towards a love of spiders (Arachnophilia) this summer through a collection of Augmented Reality (AR) spiders: a small AR spider can be accessed anywhere in exchange for a photo of a spider/web, and two large AR spiders can be viewed by visiting the Serpentine. Through these sculptures, we can reconsider our relationship to spiders and sense a world that is disappearing.

Bagheera kiplingi*, the world’s only vegetarian spider, is a personal Augmented Reality (AR) artwork. Gain access to this AR spider by submitting a picture of a real spider or web. This encourages participants to look and learn where spiders/webs live and weave; inside buildings, behind doors, on windows, under leaves.. See the collection of Spider/Web images on Saraceno’s Arachnomancy App.

Two giant Augmented Reality (AR) spiders have been positioned outside the Serpentine gallery: Bagheera kiplingi* and Maratus speciosus, also called the peacock spider because of its coloured opisthosomal plate. The presence of these arachnids aims to raise awareness and funds for the protection of biodiversity, supporting environmental justice in the age of climate change and the sixth mass extinction. 

Webs of Life invites a deeper consideration towards and awareness of our neighbours, collectively calling for interspecies cohabitation. It is an experiment in technodiversity (a term coined by writer and philosopher Yuk Hui) in the service of biodiversity – moving us to a real Augmented Reality.

An Open Letter for Invertebrate Rights

Towards Webs of Life: For a real Augmented Reality

 

Dear inhabitants of the worlds,

 

We would like to start by thanking you for your time, by recognizing our rights to inhabit and participate in this exhibition and for not labelling us “urban pests” as many others do. We hope that after this exhibition ends, you would consider allowing our continuing but threatened, unlimited existence.

 

Many of you are frightened of us in the real world. To overcome this we hope you might interact with a digital version of us.

 

Your scientific names for us are Bagheera kiplingi* and Maratus speciosus, though we call ourselves differently in our vibrational language. This summer, you will be able to spot our augmented presence around the Serpentine.

 

Now, after this exhibition ends, you will need to find us in the real world and show a good will of co-existence by not sweeping us away. We could grant you in exchange a certificate of co-existence for a perpetual loan of our avatar friends to be exhibited permanently, under the terms agreed to respect our rights!

 

We have lived on earth for more than 380 million years, while some of you humans, only 200 thousand years. Can the minority learn to live with the majority of us? We are the 95% of all animals on planet earth asking for the right to weave webs of life, yet we are threatened into extinction by such a small number of individuals.

 

Do not be afraid. Let us move from arachnophobia to arachnophilia by sensing new threads of connectivity, or else face the eternal silence of extinction.

 

At-ten(t)sion to invertebrate rights for “Webs of Life”!**

 

 

Title: “Webs of Life”
Year: 13,819,062,021 years, ABB (After Big Bang)
Co-Authors: Bagheera kiplingi*, Maratus speciosus and
Tomás Saraceno, founding member of Arachnophilia
Edition: Still ongoing but threatened

 

*Named after Rudyard Kipling, Bagheera kiplingi’s* name represents for many the Victorian imperialism Kipling supported. Tomás Saraceno with members of the Arachnophilia community is attempting to rename this and other spider species whose names carry controversial, post-colonial references. Find out more on renaming this spider and other species at Arachnophilia.net.
 
**We cannot speak in the name of the spider/web. We do not represent the spider/webs and cannot impose a human language or legal framework onto them. We cannot speculate on their rights. This letter is an invitation to imagine (re)new(ed) ways of entangling with our arachnid kin, and all living and nonliving entities of this earth, differently. Vibrate within the “Webs of Life”.

SARACENO’S WEBS OF LIFE ON THE ACUTE ART APP

 

To view Bagheera kiplingi* where you are:

  1. Locate a spider or a web in your home or garden, on the street, in a park – be careful not to disturb it!
  2. Download the Acute Art App, or find it on the App Store or Google Play
  3. Select Saraceno@Serpentine
  4. Choose Bagheera kiplingi*
  5. Take a picture of the Spider/Web you’ve found.
  6. Receive and place Tomás Saraceno’s AR artwork Bagheera kiplingi*.  
  7. See yours and other Spider/Web images on the Arachnomancy App.
  8. To find out more about Bagheera kiplingi* and Saraceno’s campaign to change its name, please visit Arachnophilia.net

 

To view Maratus speciosus and Bagheera kiplingi* onsite at Serpentine visit us!

 

Share photos or videos from the app and use #WebsofLife and #Arachnophilia

 

(The devices supported are iPhone X or above, and Samsung Galaxy S8 or equivalent. The app requires a phone with a minimum of 4GB of memory and Apple iOS 11 or Android 8.0 Oreo (API 24) operating system).

 

 

 

Aria
Aria
·
ON AIR
ON AIR
·
ALBEDO
ALBEDO
·
Cumulus
Cumulus
·
...