Ecologias Tentaculares

BIO

WITCH ECOLOGIES is an immersive video mapping show presented at Cattedrale dell'Immagine in Florence, in the context of the XR Festival on the 16th of June 2024. The work seeks to revisit the historical narratives about the relationship of plants and women, during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The show features a pre-recorded audio-visual composition, in which the biofeedback of medicinal “magical” plants is processed and transformed into an involving dynamic landscape, with the help of specific hardware, software, and AI. The selected species — mugwort, lavender, sage, valerian, rue, and millefolium — represent traditional healing through phytotherapy while evoking the symbology of plants as mystic tools. Medieval women scholars like Hildegard von Bingen and Trotula di Salerno, documented the therapeutic properties of plants, which held profound medicinal significance, serving as remedies for physical and spiritual ailments, while women herbalists of the Renaissance like Caterina Sforza and Isabella Cortese gathered knowledge from ancient texts and local traditions.

By blending scientific curiosity with practical medicinal, therapeutical, and cosmetic applications, women herbalists contributed to a broader pharmacopeia relevant in the present time. On the other hand, women were often mislabeled as "witches" for their knowledge of botanical healing, revealing the darker side of the history of herbalism.

Contemporary scholars such as Silvia Federici have argued that the persecution of “wise women” marked a significant rupture with traditional healing practices. These historical references frame the work’s narrative, which seeks to amplify the voices of women who used botanical knowledge for healing and spiritual practices, while at the same time giving a "voice" to plants themselves. The co-created process is achieved by a technique in which the subtle electrical activity of plants is used to trigger or modify audio or visual data, according to defined parameters.

The main projection consists of the artist's body channeling the audio waves from the plant's sound. The other visuals are obtained from original images generated with AI prompts in which the seed is determined by the plant’s energy. These electrical signals are obtained through sensors connected to an Arduino microcontroller, which communicates with a flow of audio and video software on a laptop computer. Such technology allows plants to “speak”, a concept informed by many contemporary scientists and scholars such as Monica Gagliano or Stefano Mancuso, who posit that plants have perceptive and communicative capabilities. "Witch Ecologies. Paradise Lost, Flora Found" is a celebration of women’s contributions to botanical science and medicine in early modern Europe, exploring the ways they cultivated a relationship with nature while seeking contemporary restoration for the prosecutions of the catholic church. Unlike John Milton’s “Paradise Lost”, this work displaces women from the source of original sin, to present them as keepers of healing and wisdom, in an alternative narrative where they are not the cause of mankind’s fall but are instead stewards of redemption through knowledge and care. In this immersive experience, the public is offered an invitation to revisit tradition, botany, and mythology, in a ritualistic journey achieved through modern technology, which provides a multisensory glimpse into an earthly healing Eden.

WITCH ECOLOGIES. PARADISE LOST, FLORA FOUND (2024)