LONDON.- The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish is a major publication gathering work from over 100 contributors in the arts, humanities, and sciences. This collection, edited by Serpentine’s Head of Ecologies Lucia Pietroiusti and Filipa Ramos (Art Institute, FHNW Academy of Art and Design, Basel) and published by Hatje Cantz and Serpentine, explores animal, plant, fungal, and machine consciousness, interspecies communication, and more-than-human perspectives. Marking a significant milestone in Serpentine’s long-term research initiative of the same name—which began in 2018 as part of the General Ecology project—the publication brings together years of inquiry into non-human ways of knowing and being, and includes original conversations, essays, meditations, poems and artworks.
The first launch of the publication will take place at E-WERK Luckenwalde, Germany, on May 31st 2025, as part of the festival’s sixth iteration, Love and Lament, presented by Schering Stiftung, Berlin. Love and Lament focuses on intimacy and grief across species and beings, and features Aslak Aamot Helm, Antoine Bertin, Kapwani Kiwanga, Michael Ohl, Alejandra Pombo Su, Elizabeth A. Povinelli, Claudia Rankine, Asad Raza, Giles Round, Jenna Sutela, Jovana Maksić, Staci Bu Shea and Revital Cohen & Tuur Van Balen. The evening will conclude with DJ sets by Tuur Van Balen and María Inés Plaza Lazo.
The publication is arranged in five chapters. The first, titled Worlds, focuses on principles of symbiosis and coevolution, anthropological approaches to more-than-human beings; and radical reimaginings of the planet. The second, Beings, presents more-than-human beings as collaborators, co-thinkers, and interlocutors – from the sound of a forest stretching and shifting to the swarming messiness of the soil, through to the body language of animals. The third, entitled Grounds, hosts debates concerning more-than-human and planetary life within the social and political entanglements of anthropocentrism, and calls for more-than-human and environmental practices of justice. Odes, the fourth chapter, brings to the fore an understanding of mythology, storytelling, and meaning-making as planetary manifestations, tracing human/more-than-human relations across deep time. In Oracles, the book’s closing chapter, the spiritual realm and advanced technologies (human and non-human) meet at the porous and uncertain edges of planetary computation and complexity.
Art Direction by Giles Round. Contributors: Andrew Adamatzky; Yussef Agbo-Ola/Olaniyi Studio; Sophia Al-Maria; Allora & Calzadilla; Saelia Aparicio; Chloe Aridjis; Heather Barnett; Antoine Bertin; Lynne Boddy; Elizabeth-Jane Burnett; Vivian Caccuri; Mariana Caló & Francisco Queimadela; Federico Campagna; Teresa Castro; Alex Cecchetti; Vint Cerf; Ted Chiang; Sean Cho A.; Nicola Clayton; Emanuele Coccia; Revital Cohen; & Tuur Van Balen; The Coven Intelligence Program; Marisol de la Cadena; Michela de Mattei; Onome Ekeh; Cru Encarnação; James Fairhead; Adham Faramawy; Simone Forti; Claire Filmon; Rosalind Fowler; Peter Gabriel; Elaine Gan; Jay Gao; Sabine Hauert; Daisy Hildyard; Amy Hollywood; Hylozoic/Desires (Himali Singh Soin & David Soin Tappeser); Tim Ingold; Derek Jarman; Alex Jordan; Karrabing Film Collective; Leah Kelly; Asim Khan; Kapwani Kiwanga; Dominique Knowles; Bettina Korek; Simone Kotva; Daisy Lafarge; Hannah Landecker; Yasmeen Lari; Long Litt Woon; Annea Lockwood; Thandi Loewenson; Miranda Lowe; Sophie Lunn-Rockliffe; Marcos Lutyens; Carlos Magdalena; Michael Marder; Alex McBratney; Natasha Myers; Nahum; Rasmus Nielsen/ SUPERFLEX; Hatis Noit; Hans Ulrich Obrist; Angelica Patterson; Lucia Pietroiusti; Elizabeth A. Povinelli; Maria Puig de la Bellacasa; Filipa Ramos; Asad Raza; Diana Reiss; Tabita Rezaire; Ben Rivers; Giles Round; Merlin Sheldrake; Kostas Stasinopoulos; Jenna Sutela; bones tan jones; Phoebe Tickell; Anaïs Tondeur & Germain Meulemans; Laurence Totelin; Anna L. Tsing; Oula A. Valkeapäa & Leena Valkeapäa; Sumayya Vally; Kim Walker; Chris Watson; Elvia Wilk; Rain Wu & Mariana Sanchez Salvador.
The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish began as a multi-year research project investigating consciousness and intelligence across species and beings. It was launched in 2018 at the ZSL London Zoo. Since 2018, it has welcomed over 10,000 audience members, viewers and listeners and been a pioneer in environmental and ecological convenings, paving the way for thinking with more-than-human kin in arts and culture.
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