SΫS DANCE
Sound and scent installation
Arts-based
Research-Installation by MUELLER-DIVJAK in the course of the artistic project SENSING LIVING SYSTEMS at AIL
We are all living systems: sensitive beings embedded in and connected to other living Systems. The art-based research project
SENSING LIVING SYSTEMS (SLS) explores how sensory experiences – especially through smell, touch and sound – can foster
a deeper awareness of our interconnected world and provide an understanding of living, complex systems – whether in nature,
society or art.
The work of the artist duo MUELLER-DIVJAK has given emergence
to an as yet intangible being called SΫS. A mythological and at the same time contemporary real being, who has developed systems
awareness. An embodiment that can cope with diverse developments and crises in the socio-, eco- and techno-spheres and
with a wide variety of people and entities – and takes great pleasure in life itself.
2,367 people took part in
the scent-based vote which was the fifth installation in the Series of Scenographic Studies Conception of SΫS – THE SMELL
OF A MYSTERIOUS BEING, primarily at AIL Vienna, but also at MIT Boston, the SAR Artistic Research Conference in Porto,
the Austrian Embassy in Bangkok, the Songkhla Art Centre (TH) and other temporary voting booths. Visitors responded to the
prompt: ‘Imagine a being that knows and feels everything about connectedness and interactions. How would it smell like?’ Voters
were able to choose one of six specially composed smells.
The voting results are now presented in the sixth multisensory
installation SΫS DANCE – the SΫS dance floor – which smells and sounds like SΫS. The scent installation introduces
the favourite of the international electorate. Informed by the latest advancements in generative AI, the sound artist collective
of the SLS-research-team aka THE LIVING SYSTEMS meticulously experiments with the dynamic interplay between human and the
machine, interrogating (co-)agency, and expanding arts-based research.
The lyrics of the four different tracks
are based on poetic interpretations of systems theory and quotes from the Systems Awareness Conference at MIT (2025).
The tracks, presented as house and electroclash artefacts in the staged mini club, take up the idea of emerging SΫS beings
and explore spaces of (co-)existence.
SΫS DANCE is an invitation to immerse yourself into scent
and sound, into a human and not-just-human world – for a dance and embodied experience that celebrate connectedness and empathy.
Get yourself connected!
SENSING LIVING SYSTEMS – Exploring the Potentials of Multisensory Scenography
for Systems Awareness
This artistic research project ist based at AIL / FWF/PEEK-Project DOI: 10.55776/AR 776
