Mythical Living Data, as part of the group exhibition NOT NATURAL at the Science Gallery Melbourne

Mythical Living Data is an installation that speculates on how creating chimeras with natural and artificial data-based DNA can respond to ever-increasing pollution levels in our environment. Soula’s artistic practice explores alternative futuristic scenarios, using silicone casting, FX make-up technique, photography and video editing. How does the environment shape our DNA? Humans are introducing changes into the natural environment that are hard to predict – how might we evolve to adapt to this exposure, and potentially even benefit from it? Explore speculative future adaptations through different silicone chimera models. Touch a lung that could reduce the toxicity of inhaled chemicals or a liver able to filter and store microplastics. As we entangle with rising pollution levels, where do we end and where does our environment begin? We invite you to question your reactions and think of ways our bodies may change in response to an environment where synthetic materials could become the new natural. Is this a future we want? What should we do to avoid it?