Info









 Stalactite      (2024)


Steel, reishi mushroom, micro servo motor, ultrasonic distance sensor, 
sound sensor, buzzer, micro controller, various electronic components, 
silicone, latex, cable tray accessories, wire, 3d-print 


Photos by Brian Kure









Looking up, what do you see? Hundreds of cables snake through the building, carrying data, information, emails, and intrigue to people, other computer systems, and the world beyond. Like an organic entity, this live network creates its own configuration of language and possibilities. In a highly systematised and ordered context, this ecosystem of sorts operates diligently, following its internal logic, from which the majority of us are excluded, thus pointing towards things beyond our control.

Pernille Emilia Kjær has installed movement sensors on the staircases of Borgernes Hus that produce a sound when a body is detected. The sound, in turn, activates her installation in the basement repository. Here, dried reishi mushrooms extend like finger-like appendages to the cabling system. As tiny motors begin to move them, they become animated, forming a surprising alliance with the building’s IT system. Kick-started by the flow of human bodies through the building, a network of interrelated beings is constructed. As binary data is converted into complex organic life, and vice versa, the space is transformed into a subterranean, eerie environment filled with a dripping, mechanical soundscape.

Text by Jes Fernie



 Cecilie Skov   Mikkel Bundgaard Pedersen   Kristian Blomstrøm Johansson  Mia Carl    Sidsel Bonde Pernille Emilia Kjær Christian Bang Jensen  Video