m_CRO

m_CRO is an artscience installation developed in collaboration with scientists and research institutions in Friuli Venezia Giulia, questioning the tendency of humans to place themselves at the centre of the world they inhabit.

The installation uses video mapping to project moving images into Petri dishes arranged on a table. Normally used to contain and observe microscopic organisms, the Petri dish becomes a device through which different scales of existence are brought together.

Tardigrades, plankton, bacteria and pollen coexist with aerial images of humans, forests, rivers, cities and infrastructures. Microscopic and macroscopic worlds become visually ambiguous: patterns produced by microorganisms can resemble illuminated cities, while human environments are reduced to small territories contained within the same devices normally used to observe microorganisms.

At the centre, the rotation of the Earth regulates the transformation of the projections through a circadian cycle. Real bacterial cultures and a circular mirror complete the installation, introducing living matter and the viewer’s own image into the system.

By reversing and multiplying the act of observation, m_CRO explores the possibility of moving from an anthropocentric perspective towards a more ecocentric understanding of our position within the environment.