INSTITUTE FOR TRANSHUMANIST CEPHALOPOD EVOLUTION

Due to the process-based nature of the Session program, this project will undergo constant modifications; the features of this page provide accruing information on the project’s developments.

"The practice is about imagining a cephalopod way of thinking, feeling and moving in order to evolve into a new kind of human. These creatures represent a frontier in adaptability, embodied relationality, and distributed intelligence–all things we humans need to survive, and thrive, in our rapidly changing technological and ecological climate. Participants are invited to push the boundaries of their own neurobiology and embrace a new way of being in the world." - Miriam Simun

Recess presents the INSTITUTE FOR TRANSHUMANIST CEPHALOPOD EVOLUTION (ITCE) founded by interdisciplinary artist and researcher Miriam Simun. Initiated in 2017 at the MIT Media Lab, ITCE is dedicated to evolving the human species based on one the oldest and most adaptable classes of animals on planet earth: cephalopods which include octopuses, squids, and cuttlefish. Reclaiming the term “transhumanism” from those that envision a human future that uploads the brain to the internet and discards the body entirely, ITCE seeks to expand the boundaries of human perception, intelligence, and relationality by looking towards role model species amongst the cephalopods. These are creatures for whom what is brain and what is body is not so easily distinguished. While in Session at Recess, ITCE will expand and deepen its work with new collaborators from the fields of invertebrate biology, neuroscience, psychology, freediving, somatic practices and group dynamics, among others.

A cornerstone of the ITCE research, education, and experiential programs inspired by cephalopods is the series of public workshops How to Become an Octopus (and sometimes squid). Guided by ITCE founder Miriam Simun, these psycho-physical workshops foster new forms of listening and connection - to the self, to the environment, and to the other beings in our midst. Free workshops will be offered to the public throughout the session.

On view will be the film YOUR URGE TO BREATHE IS A LIE made with the synchronized swimmers, scientists, engineers and dancers with whom the original practice was developed. Also on view will be a shifting series of drawings and paintings made since the inception of the Institute, some depicting practices of transcendence, and others made in the altered states of being and sensing brought on by the work. Over the course of the Session project, the works on display will change and grow.

The space itself will be part somatic playground, part working artist studio. Visitors will be invited to rest in a diversity of architectures made for the body, and explore the library of the INSTITUTE FOR TRANSHUMANIST CEPHALOPOD EVOLUTION.

From May 10 to June 14, ITCE will introduce the public to the extraordinary adaptations of cephalopods through weekly workshops How to Become an Octopus (and sometimes squid). Participants will unlock enhanced bodily awareness, decentralized cognition, and shapeshifting capabilities.

The workshops will focus on developing three core capacities:

• Tactile & Embodied Cognition: Octopus suckers are made from some of the softest biological materials we know of, which allows them to get as close as possible to what they touch. They are also chemo-receptors - meaning they can sense chemicals, as humans do with taste and smell, through touch. We learn to sense and know the world through touch - as well as attend to the wave of sensations inside our bodies, a way of sensing touch from the inside out.

• Shapeshifting Capacities: Cephalopods are masters of camouflage, altering their form, texture, and movement style to trick predators and prey, and also to communicate with each other. While humans ability to change colors is limited, we learn to develop a hyper-local awareness of our immediate environment, as well as the ability and fluidity to quickly re-orient, adapt, and shape-shift the self for best resiliency in the emergent environment.

• Distributed Intelligence: Octopuses possess a radically decentralized nervous system, with the majority of their neurons residing in their arms. Some say the octopus is a single organism with 9 brains. From another perspective, we can say it is nine organisms housed within a single skin. How can multiple humans come to inhabit a single organism with distributed sensory and decision-making capabilities? How is cognition located in the network that spans bodies and environments? Beyond negotiation, beyond collaboration: toward shared cognition.

The practice is informed by insights from freedivers, cephalopod biologists, neuroscientists, engineers, choreographers, somatic practitioners and synchronized swimmers, creating a rigorous and deeply embodied learning experience. Participants engage in a series of exercises that integrate movement, sensory exploration, and relational experimentation, fostering a profound connection between the human and more-than-human world.

Workshops will last two hours. We will work alone, in partners, and as a group. Please wear clothes you feel comfortable moving in, be prepared to take off your shoes and spend time on the floor. There will be an invitation to come into touch with yourself, your environment, and the others around you.

For those with physical limitations working in a chair is also possible. For specific disabilities please email info@recessart.org ahead of time and we will do our best to accommodate.

Thursdays-Saturdays, 12-5 pm

Viewers are welcome to enjoy and play inside the soft laboratory space. The video work YOUR URGE TO BREATHE IS A LIE as well as an ever-shifting series of drawings and paintings will be on view. ITCE’s library will be available to the public to read, and tea will be served.

ITCE was founded at the MIT MEDIA LAB, Design Fiction Group. The foundational work was created under the guidance of choreographer luciana achuagar, with the participation of scientist, engineers, dancers and synchronized swimmers, and in conversation with cephalopod husbandry expert Bret Grasse, philosopher Peter-Godfrey Smith, and in deep indebtedness to Vilém Flusser, among many others.

Additional support has been provided by Now + There, La Becque, Gulbenkian Foundation, and Headlands Center for the Arts. Workshops have been commissioned by the Berggruen Institute, New School for Social Research, Ritvelt Institute, Berlin Somatics Academy, Hypnos Theatre, MIT List Center for the Visual Arts, Parsons School of Design, Bogata Museum of Modern Art, and Waking Life.