We are eco-systems. We have embedded organisms into even the deepest layers of our body: Mitochondria, bacteria-derived organelles live within each of our cells. A Billion years ago, the aerobic Bacteria they derive from made all complex life on Earth possible when they incorporated themselves into the then Unicellular ancestor of the Eukaryotic cell (Margulis and Bermudes, 1985) and made multicellular organisms possible.
Perhaps they have more agency than we think? Perhaps they are the ones who built this world, an omni-presence that grew our planet into the complex, rich system we know. Perhaps we are their AI organisms, who are not behaving to plan.
This film was by commission by the MIT Museum in 2022 for the exhibition ‘Gene Cultures’ and a second version was created in 2024.
Duration: 18 minutes / 22 minutes
Credits:
Concept: Julia Lohmann
Script: Julia Lohmann, Gero Grundmann, Ena Naito, Zoe Robertson
Actors and Speakers: Julia Lohmann, Ena Naito, Elise Piquemal, Zoe Robertson
Illustrations: Gero Grundmann
Camera, Editing and Sound Design: Julia Lohmann, Ossi Oikari
