A Parasitic Folding

(in on the site's perimeter)

Dr Chris de Selincourt

'A Parasitic Folding (in on the site's perimeter)' is a study the microbial life around Heathrow's perimeter, augmenting images in location to where the artists’ understanding of cybernetic systems worldwide terminates. It begins by tracing some steps taken by the great writers who wandered the hinterlands of modern space and ends at the simulated reality that sits upon the site of Heathrow’s third runway. The former folds in on the later with the site's perimeter fence representing the crease along which the outer life and internal simulation will be overlayed.

This is work-in-progress and below are a sample of images and words that will be presented in 'A Parasitic Folding'. Projected live across three screens to a gallery/theatre audience, with live audio performance and live projection of the microbial life gathered from around Heathrow's perimeter.

Aldo Leopold previously stated that “we can be ethical only toward what we can see.” But what happens when we are unsighted, when what extends before us—in the space and time that we most deeply inhabit—remains invisible? (Rob Nixon)

para (next to, beside etc.)

para-cited, here (beside Whitman), (beside Vertov), (beside McKenna)

to cite (meaning to summon)

cite (sometimes confused with the noun site)

as in “the site had no ads and is not being promoted with banners"

but also here to be conflated with the verb sight (the ability to see)

from here I am seen as infintesimaly small

from out in space even smaller

I do not figure on any of these maps

my actions are insignificant

whose actions are, at scale?

and yet I contain multitudes*

many universe in an extended perceptual apparatus

available night and day

whole galaxies within my head

my attention is running after the sound of a jet engine

to capture a sense of scale that is no longer available to this screen

the scale of a force on which a global transport network runs