Cesar & Lois

Image courtesy of the artist

Cesar & Lois is a collective of artists and researchers probing humanity’s relationship to nature and unfolding intersections between technological, biological and social systems. Run by media artists Cesar Baio (Brazil) and Lucy H.G. Solomon (California), the collective frequently involves a web of ancillary artists and scientists in their interdisciplinary experimentation. They look often towards microbial organisms as models for “decentralized [cognition], equitable distribution of resources, and collective engagement,” most recently creating a body of work which merges human knowledge and communication systems with those forged by fungi. 

The collective, founded in 2017, was awarded the 2018 Lumen Prize in Artificial Intelligence and 2019 Global Digital Art Prize at the Singapore Biennial and was a shortlist selection for the 2020 Aesthetica Prize. Through Beall Center’s Black Box residency program, Cesar & Lois is developing Hyphaenated, an experiment-as-artwork intended to capture interspecies signaling. More of their work can be viewed here: https://cesarandlois.org/.