Insideview. Sonic Ritual for Composting Human Exceptionalism

There’s a phenomenon that people, who have seen the Earth from outer space go through. It is known as the “Overview Effect”, an experience that gives a new level of compassion and understanding of how fragile and interconnected life is. What could bring us closer to the overview-like effect without escaping Earth? How can we embody what is hard to grasp, relate to it, and integrate it into a conscious interconnectedness beyond intellectual understanding? What if instead of looking from far away, as in the “overview effect”, we could look into ourselves from a microscopic close-up? Could we then get closer to a sense of expanded consciousness within the Earth’s ecosystem and beyond our simplified identities?

Insideview: A Sonic Ritual to Compost Human Exceptionalism invites us to deepen our practices of release, letting go and collective dreaming. It creates a space for collective listening, shedding the modern colonial addictions, fears, and desires, and allowing the Earth to dream through us and welcoming new dreams to emerge—dreams shaped through our connection with the life inside us, the land and its songs. 

Drawing inspiration from death doulas who use songs to create safe spaces for letting go, this performance calls us to hospice human exceptionalism, relinquish entitlements and confront our fears of insignificance. Rooted in the understanding that colonial modernity is built upon the disconnection of humans from the living world, Insideview seeks to restore that bond. It invites us not only to reconnect with Earth's wider metabolism but also to attune to the life inside us—the smallest organisms that reside within, including our microbiota, microbiome, and bacteria.

Through an interplay of sounds, folk songs, and dream-like scientific imagery, Insidevie encourages us to align with these internal and external rhythms, embracing our place in the intricate web of life.

Performance by Agnieszka Bułacik and Aga Pokrywka with Ola Zielińska and Vaim Sarv

Supported by Culture Moves Europe and Kone Foundation

SOLU BioArt SOciety, Helsinki, Finalnd, January 2025