Singing stones, living installations at Science Gallery Bengaluru's outing

It is difficult to walk into the Bangalore International Centre, Bengaluru, and not be drawn into the ceiling-high black drape that is fashioned into a vertical tube. Darkness greets visitors as they step into the tube that blocks out almost every light source, save the lone light radiating from the fish tank within. The tank contains an oddity, a 3D printed version of a single-celled microorganism called archaea that moves about like the real thing would in the deep sea. Considered the oldest life form on earth, archaea are believed capable of living in extreme conditions. Perhaps in a post-climate change future, which may not be conducive to human life, say British artists Anna Dumitriu and Alex May, human consciousness could be transferred into robotic archaea like the one housed in the tank. This would give humanity a fresh beginning in robotic forms modelled after the ancient, sturdy organism. The artists call this exhibit ArchaeaBot.

Called SUBMERGE, the exhibition featuring 12 transdisciplinary projects is the first of many such episodes by Science Gallery Bengaluru, the first Asian member of the Global Science Gallery Network founded in Dublin in 2008. Science Gallery Bengaluru, which is in the process of opening a space for young minds to meld science and the arts together, is one of eight such chapters in the world.

SUBMERGE explores water and all things water, from glaciers to ocean currents, or eddies, which are depicted on a larger-than-life canvas. If not for the helpful volunteers and the note explaining the piece, one might be forgiven for assuming that this was but a reimagining of Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night. This multicoloured work is instead a depiction of the swirling motion of eddies in the Atlantic Ocean visualised by animators and scientists such as Greg Shirah from NASA and Hong Zhang from UCLA, California. “We have 40 young volunteers from all over the country for SUBMERGE,” says Jahnavi Phalkey, founding director of Science Gallery Bengaluru. She points the cyanotype landscapes of Bengaluru’s waterbodies by Delhi-based photographer Chirantan Khastgir. A blue-toned kaleidoscope, a series of prints called Azure, has been prepared using waters from the lakes they feature.

Bengaluru-based biologist Shashi Thutupalli’s FrankenShrimp attempts to make one wonder what it means to be alive. Her installation features dehydrated shrimp eggs, usually sold online as fish food, hatching in a controlled mix of water and salt. The eggs are usually stored for years together, so the question to be asked is whether they are “living” slowly or “dying” slowly, postulates Thutupalli.

ArchaeaBot by British artists Anna Dumitriu and Alex May

Playing on similar themes of water as life is New York’s Shi Weili’s Terra Mars Series, in which earth adopts a Martian look, while Mars is presumed to have water and plant life. These images are results of the data fed to artificial intelligence, making one pause on realising that it took the computer 73 attempts to show life on Mars (because “creating life is complex,” in a volunteer’s words), and only two attempts to show a parched red earth.

SUBMERGE has also added to its programme a series of events, the next of which on Sunday will have urban planner S Vishwanath taking people on a guided tour of Cubbon Park to better understand the city’s water systems.

Stepping in to the exhibition is a must, if for curiosity alone, for works such as Italian percussionist Ivan Macera’s Diagnesis. This features sedimentary rocks to show how stones produce “music”, a unique range of sounds that human ears wouldn’t be able to pick up if not for a submersible microphone. A young volunteer describes it as “rock music”.

SUBMERGE is on display at Bangalore International Centre till January 30. Call 080 2535 9680 for details