slimeQrawl, 2023, 3 channel video projection, no sound, 14:22 min.
slimeQrawl invites the viewer to explore our quantum future’s impact on human and non-human bodies.
slimeQrawl is a hypnotic, dream-like video suggestive of quantum interspecies entanglement. It combines quantum computing, CGI and filmed footage and delves into the intricate entanglements between various forms of machines, life, matter and the quantum world.
Slime is a reoccuring motif in Heaney’s work, characterizing the unstable nature of all things and the self. Slime becomes a symbol of potentiality, transformation and the blurred boundaries between the animate and inanimate, between life and death. slimeQrawl therefore invites us to reconsider our understanding of the individual and the potential for interconnectedness.
Heaney uses her self-written quantum video editing technique that leverages the power of IBM’s 5 qubit quantum computer to layer and remix videos following the intricate relations of quantum entanglement, which results in a blurry, non-binary way of seeing the world abundent with new possibilities.
Through this process, the combined videos of slime, human and non-human bodies melt in and out of one another, oozing across three screens, at times conveying impossible hybrid creatures and at others emerging as familiar forms. This technique transcends the boundaries of conventional step-by-step video editing to open up the queer, non-binary, and posthuman possibilities of quantum.
slimeQrawl was commissioned by Shoreditch Arts Club, London.
It has been exhibited at Shoreditch Arts Club, London; Quantum Soup, HEK, Basel and Ooze Machines, Phoenix Art Space x Brighton Festival, Brighton.
