VINE 2.0, 2022
Arm prosthesis
Resin, electronics, metal components and gold plated metal
70 x 14 x 14 cm

Photo and video installation with photos by Rosie Williams, Ewelina Stechnij, Louie Banks, Lukasz Suchorab, Omkaar Kotedia, Rosemary Williams, Simon Clemenger, Andrew Perris

Courtesy The Alternative Limb Project

Sophie de Oliveira Barata is a designer, artist and prosthetist. She works with people who, through artistic and artificial enhancement, create and wear a self-empowering form of their body. The word ‘prosthesis’ derives from the Greek ‘to add’. In the medical sense it refers to an artificial body part that replaces a missing limb. Yet in the context of The Alternative Limb Project, addition means more. It isn’t simply about supplementing the body or replacing a lost limb. Her ‘alternative limbs’ are an empowerment of personality. They are an expression of a body that, through our own narratives, assumes a self-selected, extended form.

The absence of a limb—whether from birth, through accident or due to medical necessity—has long been associated with social stigmatisation. The idea of a body that doesn’t conform to the norm is often a factor in the exclusion and shame experienced by those affected. Prostheses can partly compensate for the body’s missing functions, and with advancing technology, this can now be done in such a way that the distinction between the body and the artificial part is largely unobtrusive and invisible.

Sophie de Oliveira Barata, however, represents a practice that not only provides wearers with a functional prosthesis, but develops with them a concept of proud otherness. It is about the empowerment of their being and the wearing of an ornament that extends their bodies and embodies the uniqueness of the wearer. For this reason, de Oliveira Barata, deliberately, doesn’t call her objects prostheses, instead, provocatively, she calls them ‘alternative limbs’ where the ‘alternative’ stands for expansion and inimitability.

De Oliveira Barata’s work brings together science, technology, medicine and art. Behind each of her projects and objects stands an individual person, with their own story and psychology. Today, de Oliveira Barata collaborates with a wide range of trades and specialists, including electronics engineers, mechanical engineers, prosthetic technicians, traditional craftspeople (such as woodcarvers), metalworkers and jewellery designers. In addition to extensive handcraft, she also employs techniques such as 3D printing and computer-assisted milling.

After studying art, de Oliveira Barata began her career in film, in special effects. She then moved into the medical field, where she spent eight years working in a rehabilitation centre with people who had undergone amputations. Following this, she decided to move beyond simply producing hyperrealistic replicas and instead work with those affected to develop prostheses as forms of artistic and personal expression. Where initially the aim had been realism—to give prostheses an appearance as close to natural limbs as possible and to achieve visual continuity with the body—she broadened her ambition by creating artefacts that tell the story of the individual. Bodies change in their vitality and variability: skin tone shifts with circulation or exposure to the sun and body shape alters with the time of day, weight fluctuation or ageing. And the static nature of the prosthesis remains in contrast to this.

The creation of hyperrealistic limbs begins with a foam mould that replicates the missing body part. A silicone cast is then produced, tailored precisely to the body. Skin surfaces are built up from silicone, tinted with pigments and applied in many layers until the natural skin tone is achieved. To reproduce the translucency of real skin, the material is stretched and threaded with fine fibres. The details then follow—moles, scars, freckles, wrinkles or tattoos—and all can be added individually. Nails, too, are adjusted in shape, colour and length, with nail polish available on request. Clients are involved throughout the entire process and decide which details matter most to them. The result is a piece so lifelike that it blends seamlessly into the wearer’s life.

When the aim is not deception but expression, de Oliveira Barata works with greater freedom. The prosthesis becomes a sculpture, an accessory or a work of art. Here, too, everything begins with dialogue: what does the wearer wish to reveal, what story should the object tell? The team brings together a wide range of handcraft techniques to create a unique piece.

De Oliveira Barata recognised early on that people longed for more than the mere replacement of a missing limb and its function. What they sought was healing. She set out in search of individuals who would join her in developing a new approach to artificial limbs. The first was Viktoria Modesta, a British singer and model, and soon others followed—Paralympic athletes, musicians, artists, former soldiers—all realising their dream of a functional extension to their bodies. They wear their ‘alternative limbs’ with pride; they stand as expressions of their personality and identity.

What is different—and in a majority society may still be regarded as abnormal—is here transformed into adornment, into an affirmative gesture not of concealment but of celebration. Playful, bold, humorous and beautiful, rather than a posture of victimhood that invites pity. This completely alters relationships and self-image.

De Oliveira Barata’s prostheses don’t hide physical differences, they reveal them. They transform them into something special and endow them with their own power. “I like making these pieces”, she emphasises, “because the conversations change, from pity to wonder.” The ‘alternative limbs’ open up a dialogue about the idea of the human body and differences in body images, and they celebrate them.

“When people wear their alternative prostheses, their posture often changes”, says Sophie de Oliveira Barata. “That is because they have been involved in the process of creation—and because the pieces attract attention. Instead of pity, they encounter curiosity, sometimes even admiration. That gives them strength. Some wear their prostheses on special occasions, slipping into a kind of alter ego. Others make them a permanent part of their identity.”

The exhibition Anatomy of Fragility at the Frankfurter Kunstverein presents two works from the series of The Alternative Limb Project. One was created as a functional prosthesis, the other as an object in which aesthetic concerns take precedence.

Materialise is an alternative arm created for activist and model Kelly Knox. It’s divided lengthwise into two halves, one side consists of silicone skin, the other of a multitude of materials: steel, stone, earth, wood, moss, oil, cork, wool, bronze, rhodium and gold. Depending on her mood and state of mind, the wearer can interchange the elements. This alters not only the texture but also the weight of the arm. Kelly Knox decides for herself how she wishes to wear it.

The arm was produced using 3D-printing and CNC-milling techniques, alongside extensive handcraft and artisanal work. The skin side is a realistic reproduction of the wearer’s right arm in a silicone-like material, representing Kelly Knox’s physical self. The choice of materials embodies the individual, emotional and spiritual dimensions of her personality.

Another model, VINE 2.0, was also created for Kelly Knox. This ‘alternative limb’ distances itself even more decisively from the idea and aesthetics of realistic-looking limbs. The arm becomes a tentacle-like structure made up of 26 vertebral segments. The wearer controls the arm’s movements using pressure sensors in the shoe and artificial tendons contract or loosen, producing fluid motions. Through an electromagnet, the prosthesis connects to a metal fixture on the body via a clip-on system. Circuits, batteries and sensors now transmit the organism’s impulses via Bluetooth to the alternative body part.

VINE 2.0 seems to pay tribute to the thinker Donna Haraway. Under the concept of ‘tentacular thinking’, she questions a world view in which humans, with their specific corporeality and needs, elevate themselves to the centre of creation. Haraway advocates overcoming the typically Western mode of thinking in dualisms: human–animal, nature–technology and body–mind. The future of identity and the body arises beyond these. In A Cyborg Manifesto, Haraway chooses the figure of a hybrid being—part biological organism, part machine—as a metaphor for emancipatory purposes and for overcoming patriarchal structures.

For Anatomy of Fragility, the Frankfurter Kunstverein has assembled a comprehensive selection of documentary films, photographs and technical drawings in collaboration with Sophie de Oliveira Barata. As the numerous objects belong to their wearers, it is they who bear witness to this unique body of work.

The Alternative Limb Project was founded by Sophie de Oliveira Barata (*1982 in London, UK). Her works have been exhibited internationally in institutions such as the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh (UK); the Musée de l’Homme in Paris (FR); Ars Electronica in Linz (AUT); the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago (USA); the Science Museum in London (UK); Museum Arnhem (NL) and Museum Ulm (DE). Sophie de Oliveira Barata gives regularly lectures internationally, most recently at TED X in London (UK); TED MED in San Francisco (USA); and the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds (UK).

The world we live in is the result of billions of years of natural development. The transformation of our planet, which accompanies this evolution, can provide insights yet to be discovered into the way Earth deals with change. Science and art offer very different approaches to exploring nature. However, both come together beautifully in this exhibition, which focuses on glimpses into the absent.

If we want to understand the functional relationships between the living world, the solid Earth and the climate system, or if we aim to reconstruct how our planet has changed over millions of years, scientists must gather information that indirectly provides insight into the past. For example, they use the chemical fingerprint left by a global event in geological formations to give shape to the past, the absent, and make it tangible. The study of our planet’s evolution, from the depths of time to the present, is carried out through precise, extensive and ideally innovative measurements of organisms and natural materials. These store information about a phenomenon, a development or a significant event in the living world that needs to be reconstructed. In order to delve deeply into the planet’s history, scientists must overcome incredibly long timescales. We bring the past into the present; we study the traces of a development. The present, therefore, opens up the possibility of gaining insights into processes and sequences that occurred long ago and would otherwise have remained forever hidden.

To discover the absent, it is necessary to look at a question from an unusual perspective. Innovation, creativity and the courage to take unfamiliar paths are the foundations for groundbreaking scientific discoveries. But they also offer an opportunity to provide solutions to the many challenges of a rapidly changing world—solutions built on authentic knowledge. Here, science becomes part of the democratic process, which it is our collective responsibility to protect. The question of what kind of world we want to live in in the future is a societal one, and science, if we choose to frame it this way, can describe the possibilities for shaping that future and the consequences of our actions. Making the absent visible from the present in order to develop options for the well-being of both humanity and nature—that is our opportunity.

We aim, through the collaboration between the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt and the Frankfurter Kunstverein, to reveal new perspectives and narratives concerning the relationship between humans and nature by combining science and art. Both partners bring their own unique expertise to this collaboration. How is the relationship between humans and nature changing against the backdrop of increasingly urgent global issues? What approaches will allow visitors to reflect on themselves without being overwhelmed by the scale and complexity of the question? For both institutions, this collaboration offers the opportunity to perceive nature and its development from different perspectives through jointly developed content. Transforming the absent into a describable reality—that is the art in science.

The collaboration between the Frankfurter Kunstverein and Senckenberg is always a great pleasure. We hope that visitors will feel and take away this enthusiasm when experiencing the exhibition.

Prof Dr Andreas Mulch,
Director, Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt

Prof Dr Andreas Mulch has been a professor at the Institute of Geosciences at the Goethe University Frankfurt since 2010 and Director of the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt since 2015. As a member of the Senckenberg Board of Directors, he is responsible for the research programme of the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research. The latter is one of the world’s leading institutions for natural and biodiversity research, with eight institutes, three museums and around 850 employees operating globally. Andreas Mulch received his PhD from the University of Lausanne in 2004, and his work has taken him to the University of Minnesota, Stanford University and Leibniz University Hannover. His research focuses primarily on climate changes in Earth’s history and the relationships between climate and biodiversity changes, as well as mountain building. Andreas Mulch is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and has held the A. Cox Professorship at Stanford University.

Since the beginning of mankind, Homo sapiens have endeavoured to understand their relationship to the world as a structure of meanings. Where do we come from? How do we relate to the other living beings that inhabit the planet with us? How are we part of an infinite universe? Spiritual beliefs and myths, but also scientific observations and the resulting world views change over time and are an expression of how we humans interpret our relationship to the world.

We are increasingly exploring and penetrating the world. We decipher connections, we organise, quantify and name. We have created ever more complex instruments to do this. We find methods, formulate verifiable theorems and establish causalities between cause and effect. Researchers describe the world as it is, both physically and biologically. They use science to formulate terms and concepts and constantly achieve verifiable results. They decode the world and follow methodical procedures that open up immense possibilities for action. In this way, we make the world available to us. But science does not set itself the task of asking about the meaningfulness of life.

And what does art do? Art leads everything back to us. It asks about the meaning of knowledge for us. Artists are concerned with perception, or rather, with the nature of experience itself. How we perceive, visually, linguistically and aesthetically, but also how the experience of life takes place as an existential experience of “being in the world”. And art can transform our relationship with the world through narratives, through images and sounds, through poetry, into an experience of resonance.

Both science and art have their origins in intuition, imagination and conjecture. While scientists have to create evidence, artists can proceed more freely and make associations and imagination the material of their narratives. The meaning of existence and the experience of transcendence can hardly be found in science. We humans have to find them within ourselves. And we often create symbols to do so.

The Presence of Absence highlights matter as a presence into which life imprints itself. Energy and life are potent yet transient. The interplay between life, energy and matter is a central theme of the exhibition.

The exhibition will spatially juxtapose exhibits that translate the abstract concept of the “presence of absence” into an expanded realm of thought from both artistic and scientific perspectives. Works by significant contemporary artists will engage in dialogue with scientific exhibits from geology and astrophysics, including casts from Pompeii, footprints of prehistoric humans from the Laetoli site in present-day Tanzania and replicas of prehistoric cave paintings.

The curatorial narrative explores the astrophysical phenomenon of black holes. Concepts of expansion, time and the infinite cosmos challenge our understanding. Simultaneously, they provoke questions about our identity and origins. Our planet hovers somewhere between the boundless and the eternal. For a fleeting moment, the window of our lives opens, revealing the unique experience of our existence through our bodies, senses and minds. Each exhibit, in its own distinct way, engages with this existential exploration of being and humanity across the dimensions of space and time.

With this exhibition, we also trace the origins of art as a fundamental human desire to express abstract ideas. Why did Homo sapiens, tens of thousands of years ago, carve animal figures and abstract geometric shapes into the walls of deep caves? Why did they create images of things that were understood by others as symbols, serving as a connection to higher, non-manifest, spiritual realms? Why did Homo sapiens, unlike other species, develop a need for transcendence?

One of the countless stories and myths that moved us is recorded by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History, written around 77 years AD, shortly before he met his death in the fiery ash rain of Pompeii: the myth of Butades of Sicyon, the Corinthian potter, and his daughter. The story goes like this: the young girl loved a young man who had to leave for a long journey. As the separation approached, the girl drew the outline of her lover’s head against the wall where the light of the fire fell. The father, moved by her plight, filled in this shadow image with colour and made a clay imprint of the outline, which he then fired. According to Pliny’s myth, art arises from the desire to capture the transient and fleeting; to preserve it out of wistfulness and longing, absence and memory, but also out of love and through beauty. This parable is touching because it embodies such fundamental feelings.

The outline, the stone wall and the fire—doesn’t this remind you of the earliest cave paintings and engravings found by palaeoanthropologists and archaeologists on every continent? Were these the origin of art at the dawn of humanity?

The oldest evidence is attributed to the Blombos Cave in South Africa, dating back 140,000 years. With the migrations of Homo sapiens, cave art spread across every continent. Despite such incredibly extended time periods, this early art exhibits similar techniques and motifs. These seem to have been passed down from group to group, from generation to generation, long before the physiological evolution of the larynx and brain suggested the emergence of language and writing.

For tens of thousands of years, humans—early artists—created images of animals, human figures and abstract signs. Did they grapple with the same questions and ideas that modern humans do?

The cave paintings of the San people in South Africa and Botswana, or those from the Magdalenian culture of the Stone Age in Europe, served as a readable visual language for early humans. They depicted the experienced environment while also representing the spiritual cosmos of these ancient people. The stone walls, where humans created their paintings, far from the outside world and deep in the darkness of the earth, were more than just canvases. They were like a skin that separated this world from the other. Negative forms and imprints of human hands have been found in caves on every continent. These suggest the magic of contact, the touch of a hand on the surface of the rock as a gateway to another world. Leaving a handprint may have been part of a sacred act of connection with an invisible beyond—a transcendental experience. It is evidence of the primordial human need and eternal quest for a deeper relationship with a reality beyond the individual.

Awe in the face of nature. The feeling that there is more than we know. The striving to understand, to perceive through both our senses and our minds the eternal structures that reveal the order of everything in this universe and ourselves as part of it.

Since the dawn of humanity, people have gazed at the night sky. “Mathematics is the language in which the book of the universe is written”, said Galileo Galilei. It is a way of assigning meaning to symbols that can then be read and understood by others. Mathematics is a universal language of human thought, and mathematical rules reflect the order found in all natural processes, whether it’s the Fibonacci sequence or Einstein’s equations. This makes mathematics the purest form of expressing universal principles. Music follows precise mathematical structures, the growth of plants, the sequence of tides and every form of existence can be described by mathematical equations. Yet, there remains so much that humanity does not yet understand. Time and again, the power of the human mind will strive to push these boundaries.

What is the origin of all matter on earth and in the infinity of the cosmos? What effects do natural events create that reshape the earth and affect people’s lives with their power? And how do people deal with the existential need to face eternity in their finiteness? What myths and images do they create in order to connect with the spiritual? Is art a way of immortalising oneself in time? The exhibition is dedicated to these questions, which have been driving the human imagination from prehistoric times to the present day. Ever since we humans have existed on earth, we have created stories, symbols and signs to give form to our feelings, thoughts and knowledge, to leave traces in time and perhaps to connect with eternity.

We experience the miracle of reality through the senses of our body. This consists of the elements of exploding stars in space: the nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our bones, the iron in our blood and the carbon in our cells. In fleeting moments, we connect with eternity and give traces of existence a material form. Art is one way of doing this.

I would like to thank Claudio Parmiggiani, Indigo and Mayo Bucher, the sons of Heidi Bucher, Toni R. Toivonen, Petra Noordkamp, the artists of the Marshmallow Laser Feast collective and Lawrence Malstaf, as well as the institutional lenders, Dr Gabriel Zuchtriegel and the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, Prof Dr Fabio Martini and Dr Lapo Baglioni of the Florentine Museum and Institute of Prehistory “Paolo Graziosi”, the Natural History Museum Vienna, the LWL-Museum of Natural History in Münster, Nicolò Stabile, founder of the initiative Il Cretto è casa mia of the survivors of the earthquake in the town of Gibellina, as well as the photographer Giuseppe Ippolito, the VR creator Alberto Stabile and the writer Giovanna Giordano. I would like to thank the Italian Consulate General for its patronage. I would especially like to thank Prof Dr Andreas Mulch, Director of the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt, and Prof Dr Luciano Rezzolla from the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the Goethe University Frankfurt for a time of joint thinking and working.

Franziska Nori
Director Frankfurter Kunstverein

HD-Video, 12:52 min
Featuring the Island of Newfoundland, CLEAR, Rick Chavolla, and Max Liboiron
Cinematography and Editing by Taylor Hess and Noah Hutton
Courtesy Taylor Hess and Noah Hutton

The short film Guts, directed by Noah Hutton and Taylor Hess, addresses the responsibility of science and its independence in the service of socio-ecological transformation. The film’s leading player is the research collective CLEAR in Newfoundland, Canada. Shot in the Beothuk and Mi’kmaq territories, which are inhabited by the indigenous communities of NunatuKavut, Nunatsiavut, and the Innu Nation, the film documents the collective’s work. Led by Dr. Max Liboiron, CLEAR stands for Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research and describes itself as an activist, anti-colonial and feminist laboratory.

The collective represents a new generation of scientists who combine Western-shaped natural science methods with local indigenous traditional knowledge and ethical treatment of non-human beings and humans alike. CLEAR specializes in community-based, citizen-led monitoring of plastic pollution, particularly in wild food chains. Another area of focus is the development and application of anti-colonial research methods. The film illustrates the full extent of plastic pollution in the oceans and its impact on humans and nature, emphasizing the urgent need for sustainable materials and alternatives to plastic.

In the film, Dr. Max Liboiron explains that science is by no means apolitical. The history of science, technology and medicine is inseparable from the history of colonialism, imperialism and war. Even the decisions about which aspects of a phenomenon to investigate – such as the choice of quantification methods, the statistics used or created, the framing of issues, where results are published, who collaborates, who funds the research – all of this is political. It means that some structures and power dynamics persist and influence which knowledge is listened to and which is not. Dominant knowledge systems primarily reflect the perspectives of white, male, Western scientists, and this has led to a limited and biased understanding of the world. For this reason, the continuation of the status quo in scientific work is intrinsically political.

The work of the CLEAR Lab is informed by Donna Haraway and other feminist science scholars who coined the term ‘situated knowledge’ in the 1980s. According to Haraway and others, all knowledge is situated because it is produced by people in specific social, cultural and historical contexts. This perspective is especially important for feminist and marginalized viewpoints: Situated knowledge recognizes the diverse experiences and perspectives of different groups and values the knowledge that arises from these experiences. By acknowledging the situatedness of knowledge, we can become more aware of the power structures that shape the accumulation of knowledge and work towards creating more inclusive and equitable knowledge systems. CLEAR Lab is committed to applying new methods and ethics in science, as well as distributing knowledge and DIY research methods to citizens (known as Citizen Science).

MYRIAD. Installation, 2023
Fourteen modules, five seating blocks, two seating benches made of wood, Resysta, Ytong, coated with coloured concrete
Various sizes

Interactive projection mapping on three carbon modules, floor projection, reactive multi-channel audio installation

MYRIAD. Virtual Reality Experience, 2023
Virtual Reality Application
Each story 10 min
Presentation module, one seating block made of wood, coated with coloured concrete
Various sizes

360° 3D Documentation, 2021
Stationary Virtual-Reality Station with two videos
10:09 min
Presentation module, one seating block made of wood, coated with coloured concrete
Various sizes

Courtesy MYRIAD. Where we connect., Interactive Media Foundation and Filmtank, in co-creation with Miiqo Studios, Context Film and Artificial Rome

Every year, a myriad of living beings traverses our planet. Their migrations, orchestrated in regular rhythms, choreograph the life of our planet like that of a pulsating superorganism. The decisions animals make on their journeys, the ways they interact with the ever-changing environment, and the consequences of their migrations on ecosystems are all reshaping our understanding of the interdependency of all living creatures and the shared spaces they inhabit. The natural sciences explore these connections, which also resonate interpretatively in the social sciences and philosophy. Ancient stories and myths in different cultures have long told of the completeness that binds all living beings.

MYRIAD. Where we connect. is an immersive, multimedia installation at the intersection of art, science and storytelling. This walk-through, interactive project celebrates its premiere in the exhibition Bending the Curve – Knowing, Acting, Caring for Biodiversity, alongside the previously successful VR experience and a 360° 3D documentary. The work allows us to adopt the perspective of individual animals, taking us along on their long journeys across the continents of earth.

In the internationally acclaimed Virtual Reality experience MYRIAD. Where we connect., visitors follow the migrations of a green sea turtle, a female Arctic fox, and a group of northern bald ibises. Each journey combines scientific knowledge with moving images and visual information about the animals’ routes through a world increasingly influenced by human activity.

The 360° 3D film, which is also award-winning, shows the flight of the northern bald ibises over the Alps and their successful reintegration into their natural habitat. The spectacular footage was made with the help of an ultralight aircraft.

A central element of MYRIAD. Where we connect. is carbon. Over eons of the cosmos, this fundamental element arose in the hearts of stars through the fusion of helium. It arrived on our planet from space through countless asteroid impacts, becoming the chemical building block of life. The bodies of all living beings, including plants, fungi, animals and humans, contain this element. Carbon has thus become one of the central design elements of the multimedia art installation. The visual worlds of MYRIAD. Where we connect. are based on black and white charcoal drawings, from which digital animations were created. The forms of carbon’s binding structures live on in the sculptural spatial elements and their tactile, haptic surfaces. All 3D animations and elements of the multimedia installation are monochromatic. They insert fragments of knowledge and give visual artistic expression to data that has been interpreted.

The journeys of individual animals during their migrations are narrated on three large-scale carbon objects. In the overall 22-minute animation, visitors follow the flight routes of animal flocks and the stories of individual species. Amur falcons, monarch butterflies, and common cranes are featured. As one of the elements of animal migrations, air marks the beginning of the exhibition at the Frankfurter Kunstverein. Borders, obstacles, land use, as well as changes in the Earth’s system and polar melting, pose significant challenges to living beings during their migrations.

Made of wood, the installation objects are coated with black-pigmented concrete putty. These materials were sonically deconstructed, captured, and used for the soundscape by means of the audio effect “Convolution Reverb”. The sound characteristics and audio processing of the materials shape the atmosphere, generating novel sounds of material quality.

The sculptural elements of the spatial installation are embedded in a 360-degree soundscape. The acoustic spatial experience follows the concept of Soundscape Ecology. It orchestrates biological sounds (biophony), human sounds (anthropophony), and non-biological but sound-producing natural phenomena. The acoustic ecosystem thereby created responds to the presence of visitors in the space, symbolizing the changing influence of humans on their environment.

MYRIAD. Where we connect. was created in close collaboration with an interdisciplinary team. The representations are based on real data from over 20,000 tracked animals migrating in water, on land, and in the air. The data comes from the Movebank database, a long-term project of the Department of Animal Migration at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior. MYRIAD. Where we connect. brings together current research content from the fields of animal migration, behavioral biology, climate research and infrastructure development, drawing on the Big Data of the Movebank project, among other sources. Abstracted data and information are transformed into experiences through art, creating a connection between people’s imagination and awareness of the global interconnectivity of our planet’s ecosystems.

MYRIAD. Where we connect. is a project of the Interactive Media Foundation and Filmtank in co-creation with Miiqo Studios, Context Film and Artificial Rome. Artistic Direction: Lena Thiele, Sebastian Baurmann and Dirk Hoffmann. The sound design was developed by kling klang klong, the exhibition architecture was designed by unit-berlin.

Interactive Media Foundation gGmbH
The Interactive Media Foundation is a nonprofit organization with a philanthropic mission dedicated to developing socially relevant stories through audiovisual media formats (film, virtual reality, exhibitions). It produces and finances its projects with the help of private foundations and public funds, and carries out distribution in collaboration with various partners. Its work is based on a collaborative creative process and a broad network of partners. The Interactive Media Foundation brings together specialists from various societal areas and combines expertise, insights and techniques from different disciplines to open new, often surprising perspectives on captivating and touching topics. Its productions are showcased at media art and film festivals worldwide and in numerous cultural institutions. Recognition from experts and juries from various fields is reflected in prestigious awards such as the Federal Prize for Cultural Education, the Grand Prix of the Art Directors Club, or inclusion in the Forbes list for outstanding creativity. The Interactive Media Foundation was founded in Berlin in 2013.

Filmtank GmbH
Filmtank is a multiple award-winning production company based in Hamburg, Berlin and Stuttgart. Originally from the documentary film sector, its creators now produce entire thematic universes. Filmtank brings together old masters and young inventors to create new perspectives.

Miiqo Studios UG
Miiqo Studios was founded in Berlin in 2012 and focuses on creating immersive worlds at the intersection of art, science and storytelling. They follow a holistic approach, combining contemporary digital technologies and socially relevant stories to create emotional and touching experiences.

Context Film GmbH
Context Film has stood for sophisticated documentaries, innovative fictional storytelling and high-quality informational films since 2004, exploring diverse and complex realities of life. Their work, freely told and independent in form, breaks traditional thought patterns.

Artificial Rome GmbH
Artificial Rome is a studio for digital design and visual communication with a focus on immersive, interactive experiences. The team has been developing interactive communication formats since 2014 through the fusion of digital technology, creative vision and a clear design signature.

kling klang klong GmbH & Co. KG
The Berlin-based creative studio kling klang klong composes sounds and codes for auditory experiences. The team of composers, sound designers, creative thinkers, scientists and technicians explores new ways to touch people through sound. Their works are present in physical and virtual environments, exhibitions, museums and events internationally.