Exploring Alternative Evolutionary Paths: An Interview With Artist Dana-Fiona Armour

She won this year's Sigg Prize for 'Alvinella Ophish,' an interdisciplinary project at the intersection of biotechnology, artificial intelligence and contemporary art.

Rendering of an installation wiyth a big pink snake and a image of a desert on the screen.
Alvinella Ophis is an interdisciplinary 3D video installation that explores the interplay between biotechnology, artificial intelligence and contemporary art. Courtesy of the artist

As one of today’s visionary artists working at the vibrant intersection of art, science and new technology, the Paris-based German-Scottish artist-researcher Dana-Fiona Armour dives into the possibilities of sustainable symbiosis between species through her interdisciplinary works. Moving in between serious scientific data and the fantastical, Armour crafts immersive multimedia narrations that have a sci-fi look and feel yet make real scientific information accessible and engaging, inviting audiences to explore hypothetical futures. Her innovative sculptures and installations utilize unique materials and techniques to help us confront these imagined scenarios. Through her practice, Armour becomes an interpreter between humankind and other living beings, aiming to dissolve the boundaries between matter and species, envisioning new forms of symbiosis and addressing society’s dangerous alienation from nature.

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Recently, Armour received the 2024 Sigg Art Prize, a new award redefining the boundaries of artistic creation by focusing on contemporary art that incorporates artificial intelligence. The prize is awarded based on several criteria—technology integration, innovation and artistic impact, along with factors like engagement with social issues and diversity representation—and every entry receives a rigorous review by a committee that this year included acclaimed curator Nicolas Bourriaud; Joseph Fowler, head of art and culture at the World Economic Forum; philosopher and writer Anna Longo; curator and art critic Dominique Moulon; NFT and digital art collector Seedphrase; Sorbonne professor Antonio Somaini; independent curator Anne Stenn; and Gediminas Urbonas, director of MIT’s Art, Culture and Technology program. Notably, A.I. also had a say in the review process, analyzing artistic projects textually and visually through machine learning models and computer vision.

SEE ALSO: Nicolas Bourriaud Discusses the Curatorial Approach of the 2024 Gwangju Biennale

Observer recently caught up with the artist to discuss her winning work: Alvinella Ophis, a multidisciplinary 3D animated video installation at the crossroads of biotechnology, artificial intelligence and contemporary art. Set in a dystopian desert created by a catastrophic ecological disaster, Armour’s sole surviving inhabitant is a hybrid species—the Alvinella Ophis—a fusion of a snake and the Pompeii worm, a marine creature known for its tolerance of extreme heat. With the theme “Future Desert,” Armour imagines a post-human world where our species has vanished, leaving only this resilient hybrid creature to endure. “I imagined a dystopia, with a desert, where, due to climate change, the heat became so strong that humanity hasn’t survived, and there is only this super heat resistant creature that can sense the prey with her python’s pit through infrared radiation,” Armour told us.

Designed as an interactive installation, visitors are transformed into potential prey for this monstrous yet sensually captivating creature as they engage with the work. Infrared sensors detect the viewers’ thermal presence, mimicking the heat-sensing abilities of the python. Integrated A.I. processes the live data, converting it into dynamic visual responses, while a quadrophonic soundscape envelops those in the room, creating a surreal and all-encompassing environment. As Armour put it, “The viewer is subsumed into a surrealist dystopian future desert, where reflections and emergent forms evoke an otherworldly presence.”

Portrait of a young blonde girl.
Dana-Fiona Armour creates work that explores the interplay biotechnology, artificial intelligence and contemporary art. Yvonne Dumas Milne Edward

Through a sophisticated orchestration of technological inputs, symbolic narratives and multisensory responses, Armour creates a powerful and immersive metaphoric experience that challenges visitors to reconsider evolution and humanity’s role in a non-anthropocentric world. By positioning visitors as potential prey for this imaginatively terrifying creature, the installation disrupts human-centered perspectives, prompting a reevaluation of humanity’s significance within a broader ecological web of interdependence, restless transformation and adaptation.

Armour’s snake-worm hybrid also serves as a potent symbol of evolutionary resilience. Citing Charles Darwin’s groundbreaking On the Origin of Species (1859), Armour reflected that it’s “not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” Operating within a complex technological and conceptual framework, her installation is grounded in actual scientific data, the result of Armour’s collaboration with herpetologists, biotechnologists and A.I. engineers, which allowed her to delve into the genetic and physiological nuances of potential hybrid species.

Armour told Observer that the idea for this creature emerged both from studies of the most resilient species capable of surviving extreme future conditions and from her lifelong fascination with snakes. “I’ve always been very fascinated by worms and snakes,” she said. “My first companion animal was an earthworm when I was three years old, and later, I really got into snakes. I never got scared of this kind of animal. I was always fascinated.”

Various images of snakes againsta a black backdrop and in the desert.
The species “Alvinella Ophis” is an imagined hybrid species generated by the combination of the Pompeii worm and a snake. Courtesy of the artist

Snakes frequently reappear in Armour’s work, along with other amphibious hybrids, in forms ranging from swirling, translucent blown-glass sculptures to digitally elaborated two-dimensional futuristic images. These symbolic references are deeply anchored in art history and the rich cultural associations surrounding this creature across various civilizations. From Ancient Greece to pre-Columbian cultures and Australian Aboriginal traditions, snakes have held unique medical and spiritual roles in healing—only to have their image distorted toward sin and danger with the rise of Christianity. “In the temple next to Athens, Askelepyum healed his patients with snakes, and he was living in harmony with snakes in this hospital,” she explained. “The Christian religion somehow reversed this role, but scientific data prove their extraordinary evolutionary resilience.”

The integration of A.I. in Alvinella Ophis adds a layer of complexity to the dialogue about ongoing human evolution, particularly regarding the expansion of our thought capabilities. Armour emphasized that, throughout the programming process, her brain and creative intelligence directed the machine’s output, even as it processed data independently. “The project itself is created only in my brain,” she said. “I made it with the research, so I still think this is not an A.I. project. It’s a collaboration. It’s going to be activated with A.I., but I programmed it.” Unlike many artists, Armour does not see A.I. as a threat but rather as an empowering tool—an additional medium that artists can use to comment on the state of civilization and the world around us.

Image of a pink snake in the desert.
Armour is known for her explorations of symbioses between species. Courtesy of the artist

Here, as in her previous works, Armour masterfully creates powerful visualizations of potential evolutionary paths and future scenarios by merging scientific research, vivid imagination and a sophisticated use of materials and technology. “I’m trying to get art and science together as disciplines that similarly observe nature despite different perspectives,” she concluded. “Maybe from those studies, there can be an interesting scientific outcome as well, but this is not my aim. The way artists think is very different from scientists, but that’s why art can help them envision a new way to think about and approach specific phenomena.”

The role of artists is not to provide definitive answers but to pose questions that allow us to envision and test possible alternatives to our current reality, and the intensely vivid and fantastical scenarios in Armour’s work do just that. They invite viewers to confront the scientific realities of our time in a way that is both meaningful and provocative, prompting a critical, if uncomfortable, exploration of the relationship between humanity and nature.

Exploring Alternative Evolutionary Paths: An Interview With Artist Dana-Fiona Armour