anna ivanova
anna is a researcher, filmmaker, and visual artist with a background in visual anthropology and computer science.
anna employs installation and filmmaking as their preferred mediums for artistic research. Their research interests encompass visual activism in queer pornography, body politics, philosophy of technology, and digital intimacy.
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On the ruins of nature, we build a shrineMulti-media installation
Berlin
2020On the digital remnants of nature, we build a shrine. Worshippers connect with memories of nature as it once existed. Instead of traditional religious icons, visitors admire blissful landscapes on digital screens. Animal figures, immortalised in plastic frames, replace human saints, symbolising the creatures who suffered for humanity's sake.
Step into a future shrine built from glowing plastics and digital screens, offering artificial sensory experiences of a lost natural world. This immersive installation comprises five chambers, each dedicated to mimicking one of the five senses—sight, touch, smell, hearing, and taste—evoking solastalgia, the profound longing for a vanished home. Visitors are invited to contemplate our environmental impact and the haunting absence of nature in our future.
Year 2520 on Earth:
The Anthropocene has reached its zenith. In the past 500 years, humanity has attained unparalleled technological advancements while simultaneously eradicating all forms of nature. In this dystopian future, nature exists only as a "ghost" or a digital ruin. Anna Tsing's exploration of the Anthropocene and the concept of "salvage accumulation" reflect how human activities reshape ecological landscapes. Living humans have never experienced nature; the only surviving materials are indestructible plastics and digital remnants. Nature has become a sacred ruin, a haunting presence in humanity's collective memory.
Solastalgia:
The population suffers from solastalgia, a profound homesickness, despite being at home. They seek to reconnect with the natural world, which is now perceived as a utopian dream. As Eduardo Kohn's studies on how forests think suggest, our cognitive and emotional ties to nature are deep and enduring. Nature has transformed into a dominant religion, with humanity hoping for an afterlife reunion.
Artificial sensory experience:
The shrine's interior consists of five "praying chambers," each representing one of the five senses:
- Sight: A room filled with vibrant digital screens displaying pristine natural landscapes.
- Touch: surfaces made from various plastics mimic the textures of natural elements like leaves and stones.
- Smell: artificial scents replicating the fragrances of flowers, forests, and oceans.
- Hearing: audio installations playing sounds of birds, wind, and water.
- Taste: Synthetic flavour samples evoke memories of fruits and fresh produce.
Our future is intricately linked with our planet and nature. Despite this, humanity relentlessly contributes to the Anthropocene and the ongoing sixth mass extinction. Environmental degradation is reshaping our landscapes and altering our environmental standards, a phenomenon described by ecologists as the 'shifting baseline syndrome.' As Tim Ingold's work suggests, our perception of nature and the intertwining of human and natural worlds has evolved, and we cannot mourn what we never knew existed. This installation aims to democratise the discourse on our future, making it accessible to all and emphasising that the more people engage in this dialogue, the more they feel they have a stake in it.
Created and produced by anna ivanova and Lara Ansell.