A.I.R.: From Radical Individuality to Connected Subjectivity

Abstract

Humans are part of an interlinked world crossed by overlapping flows: substances, beings and information. The major global events that have unfolded throughout 2020 have profoundly altered the social system, revealing deep structural weak spots, and pushed its resilience to the limit, nearly causing its suffocation. This context has called into question our anthropocentric mindset and has led us to critically revise how we think about the (eco)systems we are part of, how we act within them, what is our agency to drive meaningful shifts, and with which tools we can do so. For nine months during which life and art became part of a single space, we, three artists and designers in collaboration with a diverse team of researchers, explored the way in which our individual and collective agency is affected by how close – both emotionally and physically – we feel to others, whether human or not. By navigating through art and design approaches, we imagined perspectives to defy our dualist, linear and Cartesian point of view to question how, as our system regains its speed, we can move towards a more connected sense of being. A systemic thinking toolkit, dozens of conversations, a breathing body, a poem and a visual essay have unfolded during this time, giving shape to the project A.I.R. Air[noun, uncountable], the mixture of gases we breathe; air[noun, uncountable], the space that circulates everything; but also A.I.R., an acronym for “artists in residency”, or more accurately, artists in remoteness. Air that we have lacked too often during these nine months. Air that can be the deepest kind of embrace, in these times pierced by radical forms of isolation. We start weaving our ideas around the notions of systems, agency and closeness by asking: how close do you feel?