Looking for the Intangible
Manifesto Terrícola: An Interview with Solimán López
At the heart of Solimán López’s work is the analysis and use of technology from both a technical and conceptual point of view. The general objective is to investigate the impact that technology has on society, but also the changes it triggers as well as the language that has developed and come into use in the digital age.
When asked if he identifies as a digital artist, he replies that it is a somewhat limiting label for him as he believes that ideas should flow freely and be able to adapt to different formats without limitations of techniques [1]. This open approach to contamination and experimentation pushes him towards research and makes him a conceptual artist whose practice expands from interactive and multimedia pieces to digital art and performances.
He is the founder of the Harddiskmuseum (2015) — a provocative and one-of-a-kind art archive that rethinks new codes for artistic production, cultural heritage and human temporality while being contained on a 2 Terabyte hard disk preserved in DNA — and also the director of ESAT LAB (Laboratorio de Investigación en Arte y Tecnología de la ESAT) in Valencia, Spain.
The artist’s interest in technology has been enriched over time with ideas coming from the human and natural sphere, but also from the Internet, leading to the creation of cutting-edge projects that focus on the role of art in society, the dialectical relationship between digital and analogue, the concepts of identity, human heritage, immateriality, technological consciousness, biotechnologies, and much more.
I caught up with López to discuss his latest work titled Manifesto Terrícola. The project was developed in collaboration with IFT (Institute for Future Technologies) PARIS, ESAT, Polo De Vinci, MIT Media Lab, Lena Von Goedeke, Maggie Coblentz, Viven Roussel and Javier Forment. Combining art and scientific research, the Manifesto is both a critical text that questions the future of humanity and a text of intent for present and future generations. It documents the current social, economic and environmental concerns that grip the present, but also the complex and fragile relationship that binds us to Earth — a relationship that has changed so much over time that it has pushed the artist to talk about extraterrestrial beings who inhabit a planet that is almost no longer suitable for human life.
Manifesto Terrícola consists of an English recording stored in a synthetic DNA molecule that is encapsulated in a 3D ear-shaped sculpture made of biodegradable collagen. The ear, which references works by artists such as Joe Davis and Stelarc, is also a tribute to Van Gogh’s famous ear lost in an act of self-harm. The 3D sculpture was placed by the artist and his team 100 meters beneath a column of ice on the Arctic island of Svalbard. The Norwegian archipelago, which is famous for its glaciers and frozen tundra, was chosen because there are optimal conditions there for carrying out scientific research on climate change. In this context, the ear not only contributes to the research by recording the frequencies of the Earth’s magnetic field and correlating them with the waves of the human brain, but also becomes a reason for exploring the role that biotechnology and biomaterials could play in our future.
Science, art, technology, and activism are the basis of Manifesto Terrícola, which presents itself as a one-of-a-kind opportunity to rethink the present and future of humanity. In this interview the artist focuses on the reasons that drove him to create this complex work and its possible implications.
Beth Jochim (B.): Manifesto Terrícola is simultaneously a work of art, a critical text and a scientific tool. How did the idea for this project come about and how does it fit into the context of your previous works?
Solimán López (S.L.): I have always been interested in notions related to the concept of archives, footprints, and the obsession that humans have since our origins in creating these repositories or ‘messages in bottles.’ It is perhaps something that belongs to us as a species and a kind of evolutionary practice that may be filling some of our evolutionary gaps.
My current understanding of art lies in the realization that in the combination of science and critical thinking we will find significant answers for the future of humanity and for understanding the present. I believe we are going through a crucial period in the evolution of our species and that art is an ideal space for establishing paradigms of thought.
In the very near future we will understand how we humans are technology.
This is the issue I have been working on and highlighting in the Manifesto Terrícola and other previous projects where this relationship is very evident and brings us closer to our own essence from a conceptual, as well as a real and material perspective.
Manifesto Terrícola has proven to be a necessary work in my journey, serving as an intermediate point that summarizes my intentions and channels my efforts in a much more mature direction with very clear objectives.
B.: The work proposes a positive approach to biotechnologies, which are seen as an alternative material for both human and artistic expression. Technology, on the other side, becomes a driver of consciousness for the future of humanity. Can you expand on these points?
S.L.: In my opinion, technology and energy evolution go hand in hand with the evolution of human consciousness. This evolution is, of course, not consistent across different population groups. Technology is leaving behind certain past cosmologies while opening up new ones. It’s fascinating to see how even today we hear scientists suggesting the possibility that we inhabit a computational simulation. These new pseudo-religious implications are emerging through technological discoveries.
In this regard, I believe we must continue to dig deep into our being and matter to understand the logic of the universe’s behavior and extract a global rule that can be applied on a large scale. The Manifesto Terrícola speaks precisely about these zoom in-out games in matter, which is a prescient metaphor for the need for experimentation with scales.
The global use of technology is changing our planet, not only from the visible perspective of material extraction or the overpopulation of planes in the sky, but also because the energies of our ionosphere are being disrupted. This issue is undoubtedly altering the perception of the species on this planet, including ourselves. If technology is directly increasing the radio frequency of our planet, it is also doing so in our brains. This is why I believe that the use of technology is taking us beyond what we consider.
The question is which communities will find appropriate use for this expansion of consciousness and these opportunities for deep understanding of reality.
B.: Your work often aims to extract the intangible from the noise of contemporary culture. Can you tell us about it?
S.L.: I am deeply concerned about the evolution of thought in general. One of the significant issues I have always identified in our contemporary world is the attachment to material possessions. It’s a struggle I’ve personally faced and strive to resolve.
We are on Earth for a limited period of time, and our backpack is our molecular consciousness, not our material legacy. That’s why I’ve been so interested in digital-based artistic practice for as long as I can remember, because it connects me with what I consider most important: the intangible.
In 2014, I already wrote the Manifesto Intangible tied to the publication of the Harddiskmuseum project, a museum of art on a hard drive, as a fundamental defense of the intangible.
Over time, through travels and encounters with people, you realize that what truly defines humanity is the use of our own species as a means of communication and knowledge transmission. Let’s not forget that there are still societies and communities on our planet living as they did thousands of years ago, relying on oral transmission and very basic means of communication and memory.
This intangible heritage is what shapes our biological memory and inscribes the most important changes of our evolution in our genome.
Art must address this situation and function as a bubble of thought that, through word of mouth, triggers a paradigm shift and a positive evolution of critical thinking in the societies of the future. Above all, it should disconnect the social importance of ownership, material consumerism, and territory, which are the primary problems of a society destroyed by energy consumption for the production of material goods, the longing for luxury, and the over-exploitation of pleasure.
B.: Manifesto Terrícola addresses the so-called eco-anxiety and the Anthropocene. The work seeks to reconcile the issue of storage and its environmental cost with the need to preserve the human heritage increasingly made up of data and archives. Which communities would you like to reach and involve on the topic?
S.L.: I’m interested in making technology accessible to everyone. In recent months, we have seen how artificial intelligence has been demonized with hundreds of posts and comments about the dangers it entails. If we think deeply, these are unfounded fears that lead society to lose control of such a powerful technology. Here, artificial intelligence becomes the runaway horse that must be controlled by a supra-structure, the state. And that’s where the problems begin. Humans are the creators of these technologies through our evolution and collective intelligence, and in the end, we leave them in the hands of a very identified social collective with very specific goals.
To avoid this circumstance, people must take responsibility and feel part of the change not in the perspective of passive consumption, but of positive activism that organically self-regulates the challenges of the future.
So, in response to your question, I want to believe that my works bring disruptive technologies closer to the public and do so from an up-close and uncompromising perspective. The inhabitants of this digital revolution are all responsible for the new world we are creating, including their belonging to the future or their immediate disappearance.
My message aims to have an impact on those citizens committed to the future of humanity, on their understanding of nature, its processes, risks and, above all, the necessary respect for it.
B.: What technologies and materials were used to create Manifesto Terrícola and what role did the Blockchain play?
S.L.: Despite the complexity, in the process of creating the Manifesto I sought the greatest possible simplicity in observing the elements around me.
We managed to find a material suitable for the project’s needs. Collagen has a strong presence in our skin, joints, and cartilage, and it is also a 100% degradable material. This was the first step in making our goal of leaving a legacy with zero impact on its ecosystem viable.
University of Washington.
The next challenge was the synthesis of complex content into DNA. DNA storage is still a challenge in terms of scale, time, cost, and quantity. From a bioinformatics and biotechnological perspective, we conducted multiple tests until we achieved the best result in terms of stability and presence of the message.
As for Blockchain, I personally strongly advocate for the positive values it encompasses. In the Manifesto Terrícola, it plays a role in the acceptance processes since the majority of my works end up being tokenized and registered using this technology, including the Manifesto.
This has led me to create a patent that combines blockchain and DNA.
B.: Manifesto Terrícola creates a universal language based on vibrations and compares human brain waves with the vibrations of the Earth. Can you explain this aspect and why it is relevant?
I mentioned earlier how technology offers us the possibility to play with scales. Our brain is our universe, connecting with the external universe and with many other small universes around us. It’s difficult for me to think that there is no relationship between all these ecosystems and that they do not affect each other.
Vibrational waves are everywhere: in matter, in sound, in light, and in feelings, including the heart of the brain and the heart in the chest. This is why vibration becomes the universal language. Understanding the formation of these waves can give us a new understanding of life.
The Schumann Resonance shows us how our own planet vibrates electromagnetically and emits electromagnetic waves of different intensities but sensitive to our activity. These Extremely Low Frequencies (ELF) are also present in the human brain and in similar ranges depending on the ongoing activity. It is logical to think that both frequencies influence each other.
B.: You said that “every work of art, whatever its nature, requires an action, however symbolic it is”. How would you like to see the project evolve?
S.L.: The Manifesto Terrícola aims to become a social movement. We need new iconographies to defend an evolution of thought in line with the realities of our world and cosmology. Technology is wonderful, but so is the planet, which is witnessing its birth, and we are not yet ready to leave.
I hope that the action mentioned in this text becomes a common action because this ear is a symbol that does not speak of me, but of us. It’s an extra-corporeal ear that is inserted into the planet Earth to demonstrate the fragility and tension of the territory in which we are moving.
Without a doubt, I seek to create a technology-enhanced community that positively helps us make this world an understood place and humans a balanced species. We are at a crucial point, a generational and possibly ecosystem shift. It would be a terrible mistake to continue thinking as we have done until now and colonize other ‘worlds’ according to the same principles we use for this one.
Solimán López is a researcher and conceptual and new media artist based in Paris and Valencia. He is director of ESAT LAB at the Escuela Superior de Arte y Tecnología de Valencia (ESAT) and founder of the Harddiskmuseum. His cutting-edge projects, including Introns, Olea, Celeste, and File Genesis, use and analyze technology from both a conceptual and technical perspective to understand its implications on society.
References
[1]Teresa Morales (2022). “ Solimán López: The (intangible) art of the future”. Retrived from: https://www.talentoabordo.com/en/art/soliman-lopez-artist on October 2023
