Bio

Entangled Others is an experimental artist duo composed of Feileacan K. McCormick and Sofia Crespo. Their collaborative practice delves into the intricate web of relationships between the more-than-human world and its interaction with human technologies. They are driven by the concept of entanglement - a complex state where no single entity exists in isolation, and every action, interaction, and expression resonates through a multitude of interconnected beings.

In their practice, McCormick and Crespo explore the uncanny and eerie spaces that lie between human technologies and non-human worlds, advocating for the dissolution of the self-imposed distance that separates us from the richness of our interwoven existence. Their art emphasizes the necessity of recognizing and nurturing the diversity and interconnectedness that define our shared environment.

Through their work, they question notions of bias in AI and the representation of natural species, propose a return to a biological model of computation, and explore the concept of quantum entanglement across various species. Entangled Others invites viewers to reconsider the boundaries between the human and non-human, encouraging a deeper appreciation for the intricate tapestry of life that sustains us all.

They have participated in talks, exhibitions and have been awarded prizes internationally - including; presentations at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, NeueHouse LA, MIT, Re:Humanism, Oxford University, UNESCO HQ Paris, Goldsmith University, Times Square Midnight Moment amongst many more. Their work also forms part of prestigious private and permanent institutional collections such as the Buffalo AKG Museum, Onassis Foundation, Colección SOLO, among many others.

Synopsis

‘decohering delineation’

metadata:

series name: ‘decohering delineation’

medium: generative code, neural networks

year: 2022-2023

dimensions: 3840x960px on 3840x2160px canvas per specifications

frame rate: 25 fps

Codec: h.264, mp4 container

“A bird calls, a fish surfaces, a dandelion sheds its seeds in a gust of air. However, when events stretch out across hours, days and more, we no longer readily perceive, but rely on the labelling of such events as abstract groupings we “know” to be, yet have no visible delineation.”

'Decohering Delineation' is the entanglement of neural networks and oceanic data as an experimental exploration of ways to make tangible, through the use of quantum computation and neural networks, the innate interconnected nature of ecosystems and specimens, artificial & natural.  Neural networks normally cannot reproduce patterns outside of the data used to train them, but through the use of quantum circuits and marine data, the shifting regions of entanglement create spaces of external-internal influence, allowing patterns of others to exist within them.

The temporal limits of our perception in interaction with the more-than-human contexts, that we are but a small part of, arguably reinforce our tendency to treat each perceptible moment and event as a discrete unit: “a bird calls, a fish surfaces, a dandelion sheds its seeds in a gust of air. However, when events stretch out across hours, days and more, we no longer readily perceive, but rely on the labelling of such events as abstract groupings we “know” to be, yet have no visible delineation”. 

Perhaps, if we tell alternative stories of our perceptions, there are ways to see how abandoning the idea of discrete units opens new, crucial ways of re-imagining ourselves as part of the more-than-human. That we can strive to experience, for example, how a bird's flight is simultaneously weather and season, or ourselves simultaneously as an extension of coral reefs and oceanic currents.

Here, through entangling the process of inference, or output, of neural networks with oceanic data, an intertwining of temporal scales, events, and specimens emerges as a tentative experiment. The normally separate neural networks and their outputs become visibly entangled through the inextricable influence of data of varying temporal scales. These entangled points become an experimental scrying aid, one attempting to unveil how digital spaces and artificial lifeforms are an equally entangled part of the same more-than-human ecosystems that surround us.

The work debuted officially as part of the (NL) NXT Museum's exhibition 'Realtime', curated by Charlotte Kent and Jesse Damiani, with a sound by composer Robert M. Thomas.

Exhibited:

2023 'Realtime' at the NXT Museum (NL) (link)

2022 Beijing Art and Technology Biennale (CN) (link)

written word: 'Landscapes for LilyPads' (archive.org), exhibition essay by co-curator Charlotte Kent.

special thanks:

Robert M. Thomas

Stefano Rosso

Jesse Damiani

Charlotte Kent

NXT Museum