'If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it still make a sound?'. This is to say that without an observer, do events cease to have meaning or further yet cease to exist? It's easy to assume that without nature, humans never exist, however to the contrary, without humans, our very concept of nature, and everything we perceive it as never exists. Humans define the world around them as our own, through our terms. Our own perception of the reality around us is the single most defining factor of that reality. Without us, the world exists as something entirely different. Our perception is a tool, but also a weakness, and the ultimate, unavoidable blind spot. Our understanding of the world around us enables us to interpret things in unique ways and judge actions through a complex framework of preconceptions, leading to some interpretations that are intelligent and intricate, and others that are clumsy and completely misconstrued.

Post-Organic reframes our way of approaching the concept of nature, exploring urbanization, the pursuit of ecological justice and greenspaces, and the tendency of nature to thrive in the unexpected. Referencing ideas on 'posthumanism': the idea that humans are one of many natural species, rejecting any claims of anthropocentric dominance, 'transhumanism': the thought that humans should be permitted to undertake technical modifications to surpass biological limits, and 'socionature': the concept that societies and social relations are inherently ecological and ecological relations are inherently social. Each of these concepts challenges many of the ways that we view 'nature' and questions whether humans and everything we produce, from our societies and languages to our technology and bio modifications are truly something that exists outside of nature or not.

Post-Organic appropriates sounds, forms and behaviors that are extracted from what is typically seen as nature and integrates them into industrially produced objects that mimic nature in an artificial approach. This process questions how we understand nature, and if this understanding will continue to remain, or if new technological developments, in parallel to the decline of the natural world, will lead humans to accept new things as natural, or at least equally as desirable.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Miles Dunne is an emerging multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans digital mediums, sculpture, installation, and live performance. In the initial years of his professional career, Dunne has delved into the intersection of digital programming and physical space, employing sculpture, light, and sound to explore themes shaped by his upbringing amidst rapid technological advancement. His work recontextualises technology to investigate augmentation and mutation within physical environments and objects. Deeply fascinated, and troubled by critical issues such as war, displacement, environmental degradation, and the weaponization of now everyday technologies, whilst also drawing inspiration from science fiction, and imagined, and future technologies, Dunne crafts dystopian narratives, exploring themes of societal collapse and a recontextualisation of the concept of nature. His exploration of urban landscapes, industrial materials, and brutalist architectural forms, inform his approach to sculpture, engaging with themes of urban decay and industrialisation.

Dunne's performance practice explores interactions between humans and machines, through both physical performances, and the durational performance of digital systems that respond to an audience. His theoretical interests in socio-nature, and urban complexity inform his research-driven approach to examining how designed installation and natural environments interact. Dunne's use of interactive installation explores the emergent behaviours that arise between his work, and the audience and environment, in a mimicry of our natural environments' response to human behaviours. His work is heavily influenced by theoretical inquiries into physics, including quantum theory and simulation theory, where he investigates superposition and the observer's role in shaping reality. This extends philosophically, through his exploration into the concept that each individual experiences a unique reality that defines the world around them, and particularly how the manipulation of truth, and common societal conceptions, can alter what is widely considered real.