Organism + Excitable Chaos at iMAL Brussels
01.06.2025 - 21.09.2025 iMAL, Art Center for Digital Cultures & Technology
Brussels (B)
The chaotic motion of Excitable Chaos, a robotically-steered triple pendulum, drives the aerodynamic thresholds of Organism, a robotically-prepared century-old pipe organ.
A 1910 Casavant pipe-organ is rescued from impending gentrification at a heritage site in Montréal and robotically prepared to sound turbulent patterning. Organism destabilizes the socio-historical tonality of the organ to liberate and sound its hidden turbulent materiality, robotically unleashing timbres unheard after centuries of sonic restraint. Animated by the rapid exchange of potential and kinetic energy between its three moving arms, Excitable Chaos occasionally modulates its own pivotal joints and damper weights, thereby shifting the mass‑orbital relationships between its arms. These modulations allow the artist to enact unique chaotic movement systems, each a stochastic universe unto itself, while highlighting how even the subtlest variations are key contributors to cohesive behavior, whose next state is rendered unknown.
The exhibition I am vertical (but I would rather be horizontal) reflects on iMAL’s 25 years of history and looks towards its future as an institution dedicated to digital cultures, at a time when computation is increasingly scrutinised for its social and environmental impact.
More than a retrospective, this ‘introspective’ combines artworks previously shown at iMAL with more recent creations. Together, they celebrate a rich aesthetic diversity outside of Silicon Valley’s monoculture. It is a moment to pause and evaluate the value of past, current and future digital art. The exhibition is named after Sylvia Plath’s poem I am vertical, in which she contemplates her own existence, by evoking the disconnect between her human verticality and her profound desire to be horizontal, in harmony and connected with nature.
Digital culture is inextricably linked to the production of e-waste and increasing land, resource, energy and water use. It also has social and political ramifications such as the impact of generative AI on labour and that of surveillance on privacy and democracy. Big Tech monoculture promotes consumerism while obfuscating its social and ecological impact. What does that mean for artists working with digital media ?
The works in I am Vertical (but I would rather be horizontal) offer a space to reflect on the possibility of digital cultures that do not seek to scale at the expense of planetary boundaries, and instead embrace limits as opportunity to reclaim creativity.
At the occasion of the opening of I am vertical (but I would rather be horizontal), Navid Navab will present a short performance of Organism: In Turbulence on Tuesday 1 July 2025 at 21:00