Introduction

What would it feel like to share the world with machines that could live in the wild and evolve on their own?

Artist Anicka Yi offers a vision of a new ecosystem within the Turbine Hall, the large post-industrial space at the heart of Tate Modern.

Originally part of Bankside Power Station, the hall was built to house electricity-generating machinery. Yi’s installation populates the space with machines once again. Floating in the air, her machines – called aerobes – are based on ocean life forms and mushrooms. They re-imagine artificial intelligence, and encourage us to think about new ways machines might inhabit the world. Yi has also created unique scentscapes which change weekly, with odours linked to a specific time in the history of Bankside.

Yi is known for her experimental work which explores the merging of technology and biology. Through breaking down distinctions between plants, animals, micro-organisms and machines, she asks us to think about further understanding ourselves as humans and the ecosystems we live in.