Terras Lux is a speculative project that encloses energy as its main topic. Its origin is situated inside the philosophical and aesthetic frame of the different scales perceived by humans. It is inspired by a vision I had as a glimpse of consciousness, that filled my existence and made me translate this cosmological knowledge into an art project, that evolves itself as an unravelling mass of energy. This vision was the simultaneous view of the microscopic scale, the human scale, and the macrocosm.

I started to develop this conceptual frame of scales as an experience for the human body through art. The project is divided into different phases that correspond each with a different scale.

For the microscopic scale I focused my art practice into research on the biological field, translating scientific insights of microbiology and microbiotechnology into cosmological and spiritual elements that prevail through all the outcomes of the project.

For the human scale I studied the energy on the human body and linked it with my research on energy harvesting technology, that focuses on energy released by mechanical and thermal processes inside the human body, and this energy could be used for different applications still to be developed by scientists and creatives.

The macrocosm scale is developed by speculative narratives of energy from the human body linked to the flow of cosmic rays, that fill the atmosphere constantly and come from outer space.

I wanted to render the idea of a flow of energy that is present through the different scales and unifies them, analysing energy across scales and visualizing it in the form of artworks, installations, images and research. In the project, energy is visualized through light, and is the element that appears in all the aspects of the project.

The idea of measuring the soil electrical conductivity has triggered in my research, new imaginaries on speculative energy systems inside the human body, soil, earth, and cosmos. I was inspired by the idea of creating new imaginaries on soil mapping, micro ecosystems of energy and the relation with the human body. As if the energy generated on soil was formed by a system of nods that would act as a group of constellations. This network of nods of energy would link, with the flow of cosmic rays from outer space. This flow of energy is aligning micro and cosmic interconnection with the human energetic system.

The project consists of experimentation with soil as a visual element and as a material for research and generation of speculative narratives that allude to the connection of the electrical energy produced by the microbial microecosystems on soil, with the energy that is produced within the human body.

The contact produced by the human body with the soil and the potential that this exchange of energy between skin and soil generates, is a source for new applications and the creation of a whole new system of energy, in a speculative imaginary, it is the starting point for a new way of interacting with nature and a new way of generating energy.

For the developing of the project, I have been producing different type of outcomes, as I would like the project to be multidimensional, existing in images, sculptures, lighting, video and installation.

The interdisciplinary nature of the project is an important aspect that situates my practice at the intersection of art and science. I have been meditating on the idea of how the artists approach scientific methodologies and apply this knowledge as a performative element on the artwork. For me the entrance of the artist to the biological field of study, implies the addition of a different perspective and the act of entering a laboratory practice by the artist is a performance per se. Can artistic methods be a pattern to apply to different disciplines and is this practice creating a new type of knowledge?

The interdisciplinary aspect in the creative process has been an important part of my research recently as I have completed an MA in Art Science, which inspired me to use the intersection of art and science as a space to use artistic intuition as a force to grasp cosmological knowledge and translate it into artworks. The role of the artist on this era of scientific proliferation is crucial as the artist can bring several characteristics that are valuable for the evolution of science itself.

Currently the project is on its first phase, which comprises the use of microscopy to enter the microscopic realm and have a visual connection with the microecosystems on soil and on the human body. I have been producing photography to document the process of the methodologies that are used to prepare the organic tissue to be seen under the microscope and been taking photographs of cells and different type of organic tissues magnified at different scales. The microscopic images are both documentation of the process and artistic images per se. Part of this phase is also experimentation in the studio with the cultivation of cultures in agar plates, studying the different outcomes of mold growing from different types of soil and organic matter. Then, visualizing it under the microscope to have visual understanding of it and add it to the research.

I observed soil and human skin under the microscope and created an image that shows the union of both cells as the entanglement of energy on soil and energy on the human body. (Image 1).

I have been using artistic intuition to trigger notions of biology and microbiology and expand them into the creation of new systems. The speculative symbiosis of both cells through energy is showed in a photography that inquiries into the realm of a new system of interrelation between humankind and microecosystems.

Artistic intuition is the power and force behind Terras Lux Project and is also a very important object of study on my art practice.

Image 1. “Cells Fusion Human Skin and Soil” Photographs of soil and human skin seen through the microscope. Photography by Audrey Rangel Aguirre. 2021, London, UK. Photography published in Floresta Magazine Issue 001 (November, 2021)

Terras Lux Project is presented using photography, projections, sculptures, installations and also text, as concepts and the philosophical part of the project is crucial to its understanding.

As part of the project, I produced an installation that represents a three-dimensional diagram of the cosmological union between energy on soil and the human body. Soil is enclosed inside three containers made with fresh clay, as I wanted the work to have a tactile and hand-made element. The clay was modelled with my hands, and it is full of fingerprints, giving the work a sense of immediacy and tactile dimension. I wanted to give a sense of materiality to the work, as I intended this installation to be a “back to materiality”, after the experience of digital isolation during the pandemic. So, in a sense this installation focuses on materiality and sensory experience but leading the spectator through a spiritual and cosmic dimension (Image 2).

Image 2. “Three-dimensional Diagram of microecosystem’s energy connected with energy from the human body I” Detail from the installation exhibited at the Degree Show “Virtual Ground” MA Art & Science, Central Saint Martins. Held at Asylum Chapel, Peckham, London, UK, 2021. Photography published in Floresta Magazine Issue 001 (November, 2021) Photography by Younkuk Choi.

As part of the soil installation, I also used a projector to project on wall, digital photographs of soil cells taken under the microscope, as part of my research in microbiology and microbiotechnology. The projection was the link with the microscopic realm, it added the possibility to observe, as a spectator that experiences art, a simultaneous glance of the human scale sculpture blended with the microscopic dimension of cells.

Observing the microscopic world is a true exceptional experience, it makes You aware of the importance of all the ecosystems present in Nature. It encourages you to acknowledge the connection of human beings with Nature.

I think in this moment of climate crisis that We are living, a moment of conscious entanglement with nature at all its scales, is convenient and necessary for society. I would like to give a moment of reflection to the spectator, through this project. And if possible, connect the public with an artistic approach to science and cosmos.

Image 3. “Three-dimensional Diagram of microecosystem’s energy connected with energy from the human body II” Detail from the installation exhibited at the Degree Show “Virtual Ground” MA Art & Science, Central Saint Martins. Held at Asylum Chapel, Peckham, London, UK, 2021. Photography published in Floresta Magazine Issue 001 (November, 2021) Photography by Younkuk Choi.

Soil as Energy Horizon

Thanks to the electrical conductivity properties of soil, the surface of the earth could be imagined as a huge quantity of energy that can be potentially a source of electricity, and maybe one of the fuels of the future. Imaginaries on soil mapping, as a network of nods of energy entanglements on the surface and interior of the Earth. Giving humanity the technology of the future, with the advantage of being a totally sustainable technology.

One of the main aspects of the project is also the energy generated by artistic intuition. This is a force, a power that allows the artistic mind to elaborate scientific knowledge into something new, going beyond reality. Is at this point that this energy coming from artistic intuition generates the spark of human civilization, in creating bridges with realities still unknown to humanity and implementing new systems and ways of life.

The link between science and spirituality is also experienced through the project. We can immerse ourselves into scientific enquiries and simultaneously enter the dimension of spiritual energy that is the interconnectedness between the microecosystems with humans and cosmos, bringing Us again to the idea of interrelated micro, macro and human scale.

The energy that comes from the human body relates to the energy from the microbial ecosystems and this energy produced by the encounter is visualized as light.

The element of light is visualized as the link of energy with spirituality, the force that fills all the universe and is linked with all beings and humanity. It is our link with the flow of energy in the cosmos.

Currently the project is at its first phase, focusing on the microscopic dimension. Using microscopy as part of the process and observing organic matter under the microscope. The microscopic images are a window into unknown worlds that are hidden from our view. Observing organic matter has produced a lot of images that I use as a departure for the creation of speculative ideas and as an initial glimpse of future new systems.

Terras Lux Project comprises 3 phases:

1-The study of the microscopic scale by focusing and observing microecosystems and its relationship with the human body

2-The study of the human scale focusing on the energy generated by the human body and its connection with cosmos, through spirituality visualized as light.

3-The study of the macrocosm scale by focusing on cosmic rays and its flow linked to the energy of the human body.

As part of the project, I currently started a collaboration with Scientist Marta Filipa Simões, an astrobiologist and astromycologist at the State Key Laboratory of Lunar and Planetary Sciences, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau, China.

This collaboration recently started, opens a new chapter in the project, in which the reference to the connection between the scales is made. The entry into the astrobiology realm has started, connecting the development of the project with the outer space, as astrobiology is the field that allows us to study microorganisms and organisms in outer space.

The collaboration with this brilliant scientist brings “Terras Lux Project into the macrocosm, by linking it with outer space, and thus the cosmos. Speculatively, a flow of energy is being drawn between the microscopic scale, the human scale, and the macrocosm.

Terras Lux Project conducts enquiries into scientific research on the fields of microbiology, microbiotechnology, astrobiology, astromycology, physics and cosmic rays. Then, elaborates through artistic intuition, the scientific research into speculative scenarios that belong to the future. Offers a glimpse into the new systems of the future and, as the principal outcome, it ignites, through artistic intuition and creative thinking, the spark that brings human thinking to the realm of human civilization.

The minds of the artists have no limits, giving the artist the capacity to go beyond reality, into the dimension of the new systems of the future, that are still to be created by humanity.

At this historic point We are living now, at the intersection and fusion of art and science, artistic intuition and creative thinking are a force that starts the process, to arrive, as humanity, to the next phase of human civilization. Being the artist the link between scientific innovation and the acknowledgment of it by society. It is fair, for the public, that all this knowledge produced by scientific innovation and its fusion with art, to be absorbed by society in order to have the societies of the nearest future, being brought up with this knowledge, for the benefit of animals, humanity, ecosystems and planet Earth.

Image 4. “Biolight”.  Process and experiments in the studio. Photography by Audrey Rangel Aguirre, 2021, London, UK. Photography published in Floresta Magazine Issue 001 (November, 2021)

Image 5. “Energy “Fusion” Human skin and soil seen through the microscope, digital collage with bioplastic micro sculpture. Photography and design by Audrey Rangel Aguirre, London, 2021.

Image 6. “Studies on Biomatter” Experimentation with biomaterials at the studio. Photography of bioplastic under the microscope. Photograph by Audrey Rangel Aguirre. 2021.

Image 7. “Speculative Future” Installation with moss, bioplastic and light. Photography by Audrey Rangel Aguirre, London, 2021.

Image 8. “Micro Void” Micro sculpture made with bioplastic. Photography made by Audrey Rangel Aguirre, London, 2021. Photography published in Floresta Magazine Issue 001 (November, 2021)

Image 9 “Energy through Light” Installation with moss, bioplastic and light. Photography by Audrey Rangel Aguirre, London, 2021.

Image 10. “Studies on organic tissue” Photography of organic matter under the microscope. Photograph by Audrey Rangel Aguirre 2021.

Image 11. “Cosmic Matter” Agar plates with cultures. Photography by Audrey Rangel Aguirre, 2021.

Image12. “Energy” Poster for the project with a photograph of Soil seen through the microscope and a micro sculpture made with bioplastic. Photography and design by Audrey Rangel Aguirre, 2021, London.

Art, Consciousness, Creativity, Imagination, Science