Deep Planetary Sensing is a multidisciplinary participatory art project. Immersive installations, participatory performances, soundwalks, workshops and a digital platform invite us to reconnect with our individual and collective bodies, and to enter into conversation with GAIA, the living planet we are part of. The project explores how we can relate in more caring ways to ourselves and the biosphere through direct sensory experience, reconnecting us with nature through sensing and feeling.
Cross-border/international
Netherlands
Germany
Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: Italy
Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: Other
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Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
Yes
An immersive participatory performance installation part of Deep Planetary Sensing was commissioned for EIT Climate-KIC "INNOVEIT BERLIN: Building the New European Bauhaus" Conference in Berlin, September 2022.
No
Yes
2022-12-31
As an individual
First name: Annika Last name: Kappner Gender: Female Nationality: Germany Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Prinseneiland 14A Town: Amsterdam Postal code: 1013 LR Country: Netherlands Direct Tel:+31 6 41694909 E-mail:annikakappner@gmail.com Website:https://www.deepplanetarysensing.com/
Deep Planetary Sensing is a participatory artistic research project initiated by artist Annika Kappner consisting of immersive installations, participatory performances, soundwalks, guided meditations, workshops and a digital platform. It raises Ecological awareness through direct experience of the interconnectivity between our individual and collective bodies and Nature.
The multidisciplinary project researches forms of embodied knowledge in relation to nature in the European and global context, as mediated by contemporary technologies and related cultural constructs. Through direct embodied experience it allows access to other ways of knowing and relating with technology and our planet through sensing and feeling. In different chapters, the elements of earth, aether, water, air, and fire are explored as entry points to rebalance our individual and collective bodies and consequently our perception of and relationship with nature. Through a participatory research approach, different iterations of the works have been developed and shared with a multidisciplinary audience (artists, designers, technologists, scientists, students, and the general public). The feedback received through different presentation formats has been integrated into the following iterations.
The project was developed through a multidisciplinary research approach together with musicians, choreographers, architects, therapists, healers, and scientists over a 4 year period from 2019 - 2022. It has been shared in Europe, the US, and Peru as immersive installations and performances in art institutions and festivals, as workshops, lectures online, and via radio shows and numerous publications. Besides the artistic presentations and online experiences, the results of the artistic research are now being shared in a workshop format for leadership development and innovation that can be reproduced for different target groups and purposes (child, adult & corporate education, creative process development).
Ecological awareness
Direct experience
Embodied knowledge
Kinship - Interconnectedness
Care
The key objective of Deep Planetary Sensing is to relate with nature in a more sustainable manner. Through the direct sensory and psychophysical experience of interconnectivity, we are able to redefine our rational and most importantly unconscious relationship with nature, both on a local and global level. This creates not only a different awareness of the impact of our actions but also provides complementary resources and tools to define innovative solutions and relate in a more wholesome and respectful - and hence more sustainable - way with nature and the other - human, animal, and plant. Through the lens of the 5 alchemic elements earth, aether, water, air, and fire the participant experiences their direct relation with nature: for each element, the connections between the human body, its importance in society, culture, and our economy are experienced through physical sensations, visualization, and somatic exercises. The Element of Water is felt moving through the body, as a cultural archetype corresponding to the unconscious and the dream world, as essential means of agriculture, transport, and production, and thus as a highly valuable and precious resource of nature.
Upcycled materials have been used to create the immersive installations and components have been reutilized for the different iterations wherever possible. Train travel has been the main means of transport for physical presentations. Digital versions of the guided journeys have been shared online to allow access to a larger audience with a low carbon footprint.
Through the creation of a poetic sensory experience the project challenges the predominance of cerebral processing associated with linear thought systems. It invites the participants to imagine what possible realities can look and feel like if we feel more connected to our physical bodies and environments and the knowledge they contain. Deep Planetary Sensing enables the participant to sense that we are part of a collective ecological body, together with other people, plants and animals. The elements of the immersive installations, guided journeys and workshops balance ratio and intuition combining the poetic and the linear, sensorial and intellectual elements. Oscillating between a structured and free flowing approach, the artistic narrative interweaves internal experience of the participant with material elements of the installation, their outer world and societal context, interweaving inner and outer images and physical sensations. Speaking to the different sensory modalities (smell, touch, hearing, seeing, movement) - through direct experience in the case of the immersive installations and through visualization and somatic exercises in case of digital interfaces - the works redefine our sense of agency, our possibilities for kinship, and our relationships with our bodies, and those with whom we share space.
In an art historical context the project evolves artistic research on archetypal images in alchemy and science fiction, translating hitherto mostly audiovisual explorations of the subject into multisensory compositions. Its aesthetics pay tribute to a longstanding European and international artistic tradition starting from the Renaissance fascination with alchemy and the elements, to Surrealism and contemporary currents of Ecofeminist art.
Through a participatory research approach different iterations of the works have been developed and shared with a multidisciplinary audience (artists, designers, technologists, scientists, students, and the general public) in different European countries, South and North America, and online. The feedback received through different presentation formats has been integrated into the following iterations to allow for a multiplicity of voices to be heard.
The project was developed through a multidisciplinary research approach together with musicians, choreographers, architects, therapists, healers, and scientists over a 4 year period from 2019 - 2022. Collaborators come from different social and cultural backgrounds (Europe, North and South America, and South Korea; from working to upper class) and have diverse sexual, religious, and political orientations.
Deep Planetary Sensing uses different presentation modalities that have been shared at art festivals and biennales, contemporary art institutions, universities, corporate organizations, in public workshops, soundwalks in public gardens and radio shows that in many cases were accessible without entry fees to a multicultural and diverse public.
The web platform Deep Planetary Sensing makes the research and works accessible to a global audience and contributes to the growing body of alternative ecological and technological knowledge that is being co-created by many activists, researchers, artists, and the larger public. Besides the artistic presentations and online experiences, the results of the artistic research are also shared in a workshop format for leadership development and innovation that can be reproduced for different target groups and purposes (e.g. child and adult education, corporate education, creative process development).
Over 30 iterations of Deep Planetary Sensing have been shared through a wide range of online and offline platforms. The different presentation modalities have been shared at art festivals and biennales, contemporary art institutions, universities, corporate organizations, in public workshops, soundwalks in public gardens and radio shows that in many cases were accessible without entry fees to a multicultural and diverse public.
Thanks to different online presentation modalities - lectures, interviews, participatory performances, guided journeys, video meditations - the project was accessible to the local, national and international audience also throughout the pandemic.
Over 10.000 citizens have experienced different formats of the works in different local communities in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, the US, Peru and online. As mentioned the project has been created with a multidisciplinary team and has reached audiences ranging from arts & culture to biology, botany, computer science, economics, education, finance, politics, psychology, philosophy, quantum physics, and the general public. Through this participatory research approach different iterations of the works have been developed and shared with a multidisciplinary citizen audience. Individual desk research was alternated with interdisciplinary, multimodal research clinics, and complemented by feedback gathered from participating citizens during different presentations that informed the development of following iterations. The feedback received was integrated in following research phases and integrated in following project versions to allow for a multiplicity of voices to be heard. This is an essential component of the research methodology to enable a collective redefinition of our relationship with nature.
The web platform Deep Planetary Sensing together with the freely available guided journeys online (via bandcamp) continue to make the research and works accessible to the general public.
The project started with a commission for a soundwalk for the centenary of the Bauhaus movement by Het Nieuwe Instituut, Museum for Architecture, Design and Digital Culture Rotterdam. Following iterations of the project were developed for / in close collaboration with local, national and international festivals and institutions: a.o. Julidans, Hackers & Designers, Impakt Festival, RE_NATURE Festival, Come Alive, Missouri Botanical Garden, and Climate KIC. Deep Planetary Sensing has received funding a.o. from the Mondriaan Funds, the Stimuleringsfonds, the Amsterdamse Fonds voor de Kunst, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds and Stichting Stokroos. The involvement of these institutions, festivals, and funding bodies (ranging as said from local to international, from private to public) has been essential to the development of the project by providing material and financial resources, interaction with the professional and general public, critical reflection, feedback, and inspiration.
Particularly a commission for the EIT Climate KIC “INNOVEIT BERLIN: Building the New European Bauhaus” conference in Berlin in September 2022 allowed me to expand the reach of artistic research to policymakers, the corporate and scientific realm: the commission - in the context of the New European Bauhaus - was tailor-made for an audience composed of politicians, scientists, technologists, and researchers. I could summarize the findings of the artistic research undertaken since 2019 and translate them into an immersive poetic experience that connects the direct physical experience to societal, political, technological, and economic European and global challenges and topics.
The project was developed through multidisciplinary participatory research together with a team of musicians, choreographers, architects, therapists, healers, and scientists over a 4 year period from 2019 - 2022.
Artist Annika Kappner (DE/NL) co-created the project with composer Eric Maltz (US/DE), somatic practitioner and choreographer Jihae Ko (KO/NL), aromatherapist Noa Dold (DE/ES), Architecture Studio GG-loop (IT/NL) and in conversation with scientists and researchers in the field of anthropology, quantum physics, psychology, ecology, and new media studies.
Following Albert Einstein’s insight that “we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them” the project uses different modalities of knowing and sense making to envision truly new ways of relating to nature. This methodology is applied to create the works and at the same time constitutes the essential contribution of the project to a more holistic and inclusive relationship with nature.
The different collaborators and consultants interacted with each other through a series of research clinics (see Methodology). We explored the psychological, cultural, scientific, economic, and political dimensions of our contemporary relation with nature through the different disciplines and related sensory modalities - sound, vision, smell, touch, movement - using somatic exercises, visualizations, and guided journeys. This allowed us to circumvent established modes of thinking, integrate previously unused expertise in novel ways, and combine different types of knowledge in productive and effective ways. The different modalities allow both collaborators and subsequently participants to connect with nature through rational understanding, emotions, physical sensations, imagination, and intuition. Thanks to the interdisciplinary approach rational understanding is complemented with embodied, intuitive knowledge and hence accessible to a large and diverse audience.
The project developed a novel method to reconnect with nature through direct experience integrating rational, embodied, and intuitive ways of knowing through different sensory modalities. It allows different types of audiences to explore our multifaceted and complex interrelatedness with nature in the context of contemporary technology. Thanks to a multidisciplinary research approach and the different presentation formats the project can be accessed by a diverse audience both locally and globally.
Direct collaborators and commissioning institutions benefited by expanding their individual understanding of our relationship with nature through the lens of their own discipline / their organizational infrastructure and audiences. Participants and the general public were able to reconnect with nature through direct experience, to expand their perception and understanding of the importance and beauty that is inherent in creating sustainable futures. Furthermore, Deep Planetary Sensing complements the development of alternative solutions to the current ecological crisis initiated through intellectual exchange within the professional fields of art, science, and technology by adding a somatic, embodied dimension to provide a wider range of knowledge to draw upon, to create truly innovative solutions and futures.
As a form of embodied research, artist Annika Kappner - the initiator of Deep Planetary Sensing - previously professionally worked in the banking world, a sector with a specific invisible sensorial architecture that reinforces an exploitative binary perception of our environments and resources. This experience specifically prompted her to seek complementary experiential perspectives on the contemporary relationship between human, nature and technology.
Deep Planetary Sensing is unique and innovative as it combines rational and intuitive understandings of our relationship with nature through a multidisciplinary and multimodal research approach that is shared through a range of interdisciplinary multisensory presentation formats. Hence, it can be shared with a diverse and layered audience - both locally, nationally, and globally through digital versions of the works.
It thus integrates multiple, inclusive perspectives in the creation process and provides a multifaceted and multilayered direct experience of our relationship with nature. This experience is unique for each participant and will be integrated by each visitor in their own way. Through different workshop formats, the developed modality is deployed to find truly innovative and sustainable solutions to economic, political, and societal questions by complementing rational understanding with corporeal and intuitive knowledge.
The project is designed as iterative participatory multidisciplinary artistic research. The multifaceted approach intertwined rational analysis with embodied experience and intuition to add experiential life-affirming perspectives to the contemporary relationship between human and nature (see section Disciplines). Individual desk research was alternated with interdisciplinary, multimodal research clinics, and complemented by feedback gathered from participants during different presentations that informed the development of following iterations.
The methodology combined individual desk research with joint research clinics exploring the visual, somatic, olfactive, acoustic, psychological, and scientific dimensions of our connection with and perception of nature through direct experience. The team members explored and evolved visual, sonic and somatic correspondences through listening, visualization, movement, sensing, conversation, and journeying. Each collaborator would share their insights and questions through conversation and their own medium, inviting the other team members to first relate through direct experience and then respond in conversation and through their own respective medium. Participant feedback received during the various presentation moments was integrated into subsequent research clinics and new iterations of the works. This multimodal and multidisciplinary research approach allowed us to co-create a series of works that deepened and evolved our rational, intuitive, somatic and experiential understanding of the multifaceted and complex relationship with nature in contemporary society.
The 5 chapters were presented in over 30 iterations, each further evolved through participant feedback of the previous presentations: 8 immersive installations, 16 participatory performances, 5 soundwalks, 1 guided video meditation and 4 online guided journeys were developed in this manner, next to workshops, publications and online lectures.
The different iterations of the works - immersive installations, performances, soundwalks, workshops and lectures - can be shared with art institutions and festivals globally. The different formats can be adapted to be shared within the context of the digital technology and communication sector, for education and areas of science. Annika will for example undertake a residency at MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente throughout 2023 where parts of the project will be shared with the team engaged in fundamental research on intelligent materials.
The web platform and online guided journeys can be shared through different online platforms - festivals, newsletters, podcasts, and archives reaching different types of professional audiences and civil society.
Following the commission for the Climate KIC conference in Berlin September 2022 Annika developed ‘5E Holistic Innovation Workshops tailored to support corporate and NGO leaders and politicians to envision truly innovative, sustainable, and inclusive futures by integrating rational, embodied and intuitive knowledge. These workshops are currently being tested with a group of leaders in different industries ranging from urban development to fashion.
A large part of today’s planetary crisis in the environmental, social, economic, and political realms, is related to a competitive, exploitative way of thinking and use of advanced technologies. Recent scientific, economic, political and cultural efforts in the realms of digital technologies, agriculture, education, trade a.o. seek to create more equitable and inclusive social, political, technical as well as biological ecologies. However, oftentimes these efforts fail or remain limited due to economic and cosmological constraints as we simply cannot imagine truly abundant, healthy, and peaceful communities and futures. This relates back to the earlier mentioned observation made by Einstein that “we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them”. Competitive and exploitative thought and infrastructures are directly linked to the prevalence of the audio-visual sense and rational, analytical thinking. In order to develop inclusive and sustainable futures we need to complement these prevalent modalities with intuition and corporeal knowledge that allows us to feel connected with nature and the other - human, animal, plant. This can be done by integrating the modalities directly linked to our intuition as the sense of smell, touch and movement, inner images, and corporeal experience. Deep Planetary Sensing complements the development of alternative solutions initiated through intellectual exchange with a somatic, embodied dimension that is easily accessible online and through different locations and target group-specific presentations and workshop formats.
