Throwback: Anicka Yi at Tate Modern

Although i spent a lot of my time teaching fashion, i am also a great appreciator or art and creative installations. 

So today i'm throw-ing it back to Anicka Yi installation 'In Love with the World' at the Tate Modern at the beginning of the year. 

In the turbine hall, a large number of flying 'Aliens' or Aerobes to give them their correct name, moved about the space gracefully, powered by small fans propelling them in all directions. 

The machines are based on mushrooms and ocean life forms. Two different shapes feature - the 'Planulae' are the bulbous forms, and the 'Xenojellies' have tenticles. 

The intention of the installation is to question how these machine species that link to natural forms could become a new species to live amongst us and "evolve as independent forms of life". 

I found the piece quite interesting as they seemed to fly randomly but never hit each other. The other very interesting aspect was when you were at a higher level, the 'aliens' know when to go back to their base to get a battery change (*see the above right video). When landing they had great spatial awareness and hovered above the person changing the battery pack - its almost scary how intelligent these objects were. 

More information about how the machines were built and the theory behind the installation can be seen below: