BE-COMING KI-N PORTAL (2024)
The BE-COMING KI-N PORTAL is a participatory performance and deep ecology research playground for growing interspecies kinship. The project cultivates a vision of codependency and sacred communion between the earthly web of life which aims to re-cognize and regenerate the world’s immune system. This is done through learning and using the language of kinship - a collaborative cultivation of a post-anthropocentric, decolonized English that assigns subjectivity to both humans and nonhumans - and by engaging in different slow-pace, playful activities which emphasize the importance of multi-species reciprocity, place-based knowledge and bio-diverse natural ecosystems for the survival and well-being of all terrestrial beings.
The initiative is directed towards establishing a more com-passionate and environmentally conscious baseline for what it means to be a human-animal today. One that is aligned with the precepts of the indigenous kinship worldview and of non-monotheist wisdom traditions. The installment includes several billboards (kinship eye chart, language of kinship grammar rules, dominant vs. indigenous worldview, kinfesto), access to an online automatic translation app (English-Language of Kinship) and an online survey monitoring the impact of the language of kinship on the mind (find both links below). Visitors/participants can listen to interactive AI generated soundscapes of the 6 different “kindoms” of life on Earth, observe SCOBY cultures growing in the shape of KI-N letters or have an olfactory experience of the scents of the Six domains of Life living on Terra: Archea, Bacteria, Protista, Fungi, Plantae, Animalia.
The first presentation of the project occurred on the 20th of September 2024 at the "Werkschau der Schmiede24: Sloth" in Hallein, Austria. The project has been developed during a Subnet Salzburg residency during the Schmiede Festival 2024 with IT support of Eirian.
You can try out a prototype version of an automatic English to Language Kinship translation tool at https://kin.artsofself.com/ or participate in an online survey at https://kintest.artsofself.com/ that researches the impact of the language of kinship on the mind. The language of kinship is an all-species and all-genders inclusive development of English that uses ki-n pronouns (see image below) to inscribe subjectivity to human and non-human companions alike, acknowledging the value and rights of all beings. Heartfelt thanks to all the time and space travelers who will participate in the survey!
