Sonic Biogenesis: Genomics and Mutant Jungles features Guillermo Galindo’s “genome scores” which consist of graphic representations of his musical compositions and artwork merging textures of plants, animals, and microbes. These pieces illustrate, in Galindo’s unique symbolic language, how research and data have historically expressed and sustained systems of power, particularly relating to colonialism. As a follow up to Galindo’s exhibition Dissonant Matter at Kala Art Institute which closed early this year, Shapeshifters Cinema and Kala will co-present a new iteration of Sonic Biogenesis, a performance by Guillermo Galindo with The Living Earth Show—the new-music chamber ensemble consisting of guitarist Travis Andrews and percussionist Andy Meyerson. Andrews and Meyerson will play experimental sonic devices designed by Galindo. Animation by Christoph Steger bringing Galindo’s “mutants” to life will weave through the video. The online exhibition catalog Dissonant Matter is available for download on Kala's website.

The intention of this performance is to demonstrate how science, while often considered to be neutral and objective, played – and continues to play – a role in colonization and conquest. For instance, naturalists were often motivated by the desire for new remedies to treat European ailments (economic or medical) to continue their exploitation of the “New World.” Similarly, biotech corporations today push the boundaries of ethics and possibility as they seek to modify the environment and creatures to best suit the needs of humans.

The first iteration of Sonic Biogenesis, Sonic Botany was a commission for the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time biennale. It was a response to the exhibit “Visual Voyages: Images of Latin American Nature from Columbus to Darwin,” which contained a collection of European codices that visually cataloged the flora and fauna of the Americas. Galindo calls this body of work an ethno-futurist “window to mutant environments” as he sees a direct link to his artwork and the human-made environmental modifications that are ushering societies around the world towards dystopian futures (events such as Chernobyl, Fukushima, the patterns of Global Warming evident worldwide, as well as the use of the gene-editing tool CRISPR).

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