Sleepwalkers of the Latent Land was commissioned and first presented at the What’s It Like to Be an Animal? exhibition at Kunsthalle Seinäjoki 26.8.2020–9.1.2021, curated by Piia Anttila, and including artists: Mari Keski-Korsu,Toni Lehtola, Teemu Lehmusruusu, Lotta Mattila, Minna Herrala, Mia Mäkelä, Kati Roover, and Elina Ruohonen.
Do earthworms feel pain? How do they sense? Contact and smell. What about magnetic sense? Did you know that in order to be an animal you do not need to have a brain? You have to be eukaryotic, multicellular, need food, motile, sentient, reproduce sexually and breathe oxygen. You are one animal. However, soil beneath our feet hosts one quarter of our planet’s biodiversity, which is essential to the survival of life above ground on our planet as a whole.
We know very little about experiences of invertebrates, and this is because the research of soil animals is at a very early stage. What is it like to be an animal, who does not have a brain and therefore maybe no world of experiences, or feelings? Is it sleepwalking, or is it subconscious intellect? Do invertebrates process information similarly to the computer we use, which tries to invent and visualise the unknown soil animals? Soil animals play a key role in the dynamics of the soil and thus also in the dynamics of the ecosystems above ground. They contain our past, the forming of organic layer on our rocky planet, and our future. Only living soil is able to produce nutrients and together with plants and trees maintain a breathing, favourable climate.
Helena Telkänranta’s book and discussions with her have steered Lehmusruusu towards the concept of animals, as well as to the intersections between being an animal and our current knowledge about it. The installation explores the largely unknown spectrum of soil animals, utilizing artificial intelligence created by humans. The visual material of the installation is produced with the help of a generative-competitive neural network, to which hundreds of photos taken from the soil animals already found are fed. The piece is also part of Teemu Lehmusruusu’s multiannual work with the soil within the framework of the Trophic Verses. Teemu Lehmusruusu is working on an artistic dissertation on the same topic at Aalto University.
Pictures of soil creatures: Veikko Huhta, Riikka Elo, Varpu Vahtera, Mika Vahtera, Veikko Rinne, University of Helsinki, University of Turku, University of Jyväskylä
Sounds: Felicity Mangan & Christina Ertl-Shirley
Technician: Stephen Stamper
Thanks: BSAG / Carbon Action, Jussi Heinonsalo, Juha Mikola, Heikki Setälä, Roberto Fusco, Pekko Vasantola, Helena Telkänranta, Kunstventures.
Funded by: Koneen Säätiö, Kunsthalle Seinäjoki
The exhibition catalogue is available as a PDF.