Ecotonal Beings is a multi-channel artists' moving image project that engages with recent scientific breakthroughs in 'decoding' animal languaging. The project was developed in the context of the Bio Art & Design Award hosted by the MU Hybrid Art House, in collaboration with Samar Khan (embodied linguist), Victor Evink (cultural historian) and Sophie Mars (choreographer and movement researcher).

A teenage girl follows eels' migration with an underwater drone; a young falconer mediates relationships between humans and hawk communities through a close personal relationship; a marine biologist engages with sea butterflies as bio-indicators of oceanic 'emotions'; and a social misfit receives instructions from cows that act as the stewards of an island.

The four protagonists struggle - each in their own ways - to interpret meanings conveyed by other species, by machine cognitions, and even by other humans - and yet, at least they try. Anthropologist Anna Tsing argues that every living being has the ability or 'agility' to tune into other species through training, intimacy, experience and prosthetics. In the film, these prosthetics can be technological, but also spiritual, ranging from bioacoustic AI to animistic gestures. What if a version of these technologies and practices were propagated in society at large?

Ecotonal Beings is on view at MU Hybrid Art House, Eindhoven between December 13 2024 - March 14 2025 . The three-channel installation is structured around three driving questions: 'How can we ask for permission?', 'What do we mean with translation?', and 'What is the significance of the lived body when much of the communication is mediated by machines'?