Selva of Selves (S.O.S)

In Selva of Selves (S.O.S) we journey down through a liquid substance and encounter the sea-slug and famous laboratory animal, Aplysia Californica.

Selva of Selves (S.O.S) (2019)
Video-animation, 05:00 min loop with sound, dimensions variable

Credits
Animation artist: Lasse Smith
Sound: Jeppe Brix

Used in scientific tests, Aplysia Californica, has helped pave the way for a deeper understanding of how human memories are created, supplying new information about memory storage, plasticity and even memory transfer. The special combination of the sea-slug’s simple nervous system, extraordinarily large sized neurons as well as its fascinating self-defense mechanism – a fuchsia-colored chemical liquid – makes it a powerful organism for us to learn from and with.

With Selva of Selves (S.O.S) we make a shift in perspective, as we in an almost Alice in Wonderland like fashion, disappear down through the opening of the slug’s siphon, arriving deep inside its pulsating nervous system. Thus, in a merge between art and neuroscience, the work opens up to a third space of perspective possibilities. A space of co-evolutionary imaginings and a space on the erogenous limits of perception and cognition.