Tosca Terán
Symbiosis/\Dysbiosis
Symbiosis/\Dysbiosis is a fully immersive, mixed reality participatory experience working with living mycelium biodata-sonification within a VR environment. Point cloud data scanned from Canadian coastal rainforests Boreal Forests make up the VR forest environment. Projection-mapped floor and wall(s) around the VR space allow visitors within the installation, outside of the VR environment, to interact with the point cloud visuals by stepping on and touching the projection-mapped surfaces. These actions send data into the VR environment depicting Human impact within the forest environment. Living mycelium reacts and responds to the installation's Human presence while creating the forest’s generative soundscape. Human EEG influences the VR experience, along with tactile interfaces that are wall and floor-mounted. The tactile interfaces connect to the living mycelium through proximity sensors, triggering light and vibratory motors that have been grown within the hypha. Haptic controllers and haptic vest bring touch and real-time reactions from the mycelium and forest responding to Human presence. Humans feel the fungi’s connections within the virtual forest environment.
Boreal forests, or taiga, represent the largest terrestrial biome. Forests occupy approximately one-third of Earth's land area, account for over two-thirds of the leaf area of land plants, and contain about 70% of carbon present in living things yet despite this significance, humankind continues to have an unbalanced, parasitic-like relationship to this important biome. Ultimately, it is up to the Humans and how they impact this delicate biome that determines how the non-humans react and respond. Whether the non-Humans choose to pair for Symbiosis, which can lead to evolution, or Dysbiosis, which can end in a COVID-19 scenario, or worse.
Tosca Terán
Tosca Terán is a Toronto based multidisciplinary artist. Born in San Francisco, California, Tosca relocated to Canada in 2001. Working with metals, computer coding, and animation since the mid-eighties, Tosca was introduced to glass as an artistic medium in 2004. Through developing bodies of work incorporating metal, glass, and electronics, Tosca has been awarded scholarships at The Corning Museum of Glass, Pilchuck Glass School and The Penland School of Crafts. Her work has been featured at SOFA New York, Culture Canada, Metalsmith Magazine, The Toronto Design Exchange, and the Memphis Metal Museum. Most recently, Tosca has been awarded residencies at Gullkistan Centre for Creativity, Nes artist residency Iceland, The Association of Icelandic Visual Artists and the Ayatana SciArt Research Program in Ottawa. Tosca founded nanopod: Hybrid Studio maker space in 2005. Continually exploring new materials and tools, Tosca started collaborating artistically with Algae, Physarum polycephalum, and Mycelium in 2016, translating biodata from non-human organisms into music.