talking to the vat
This project will be explored further during the Tokyo & Art Science Research Residency 2024.
During their residency, Lau will be working with their ongoing research on interspecies communication revolving around the indigo color tradition in Japan, its processes (e.g., foraging, growing, fermenting and dyeing) and encounters between its plant matter, bacteria, more-than-humans and humans. They are planning to explore what happens within the fluidity of the vat, the stories told about indigo, and what is invited inside of its home. They will create a fermented indigo vat and collaborate with its bacterial communities, recording its tranformations and attempting different ways of listening, touching, communicating with them. Through its caring and craft gestures, Lau hopes to unravel a porous vat ‘language’, rituals of belonging that resonate with the rest of the world.
Furthermore, Lau is interested in the stories told about indigo, how people talk to the vat and what are the crafts practices around it – knotting, weaving, shibari, for example. They hope to be inspired by the textile culture in Japan and collaborate with local dyers, artists and scientists to deepen their understanding of the interspecies correspondences inhabiting the indigo vat.
