How can we start to experience our mammalian, macro bodies as ecosystems coexisting with the microscopic life within and around us? Which potentials does our sensorial reality hold in order to mediate the relationships between multiscalar worlds?

In this interactive talk Baum & Leahy present their research into the Microbiocene – a microbe-centric alternative to the Anthropocene, and invite participants to take part in short cellular ceremonies (Cellumonials) throughout. Guided meditative reflections and tactile encounters – with the ubiquitous microbial ecologies in your body and home – will explore new, remote practices of symbiosis and collective healing. These physical-digital micro-ceremonies invite you to discover how your body and mind are interwoven with the microbial life cycles moving within and around you, and how the ongoing pandemic can reveal new perspectives on the multiscalar reality we live in.

Baum & Leahy (Amanda Baum (DK) and Rose Leahy (UK)) is an award-winning international, creative duo working across interactive installation, art direction, scenography and experience design. Collaborating with experts across disciplines, from microbiologists to musicians, quantum computer scientists to architects, they open up, question and sensorialise scientific research into tactile, participatory experiences. Through research-led, experience-centred tactile storytelling, their work allows the beholder a proximity to alternative realities, melting between the feasible and fantastical. They met studying their MA in Information Experience Design at the Royal College of Art 2015-2017.