What would it feel like to share the world with machines that could live in the wild and evolve on their own? Anicka Yi transformed the Turbine Hall at the heart of Tate Modern with her vision of a new ecosystem. For Hyundai Commission: Anicka Yi: In Love With The World, Yi began with the question of what a “natural history of machines” could look and feel like, and built on previous work speculating on the possibilities of machines evolving into independent forms of life. Referencing the Turbine Hall’s original purpose of housing turbines of the former Bankside Power Station before the site was developed into a gallery, Yi populated the space with machines once again.

Moving through the air, her floating machines—called aerobes—prompted viewers to think about new ways that machines might inhabit the world. Two species of aerobes explored the Turbine Hall, exhibiting individual and group behaviors in response to different elements of their environment. “Xenojellies” have semitransparent bodies each with a different colored top and patterned tentacles, while ‘planulae’ are bulbous and covered by short yellow hair. These aerobes allowed Yi to imagine new possibilities for artificial intelligence, inspired by the diverse ways that organisms learn through their bodies and senses.

Integral to Yi’s commission as well as her wider practice are scent and air. She approaches scent as a medium for subtly shifting perceptions and giving presence to the air that we all share, and on which we depend. For Tate Modern, she created unique scent-scape that transitioned from one week to the next, evoking odors linked to a specific time in the history of Bankside. These scent-scapes created an environment that connects the aerobes with the history of the site and all other organisms that share their habitat. As the odors changed between each unique scent-scape, the aerobes' behavior and interactions developed in response.

Hyundai Commission: Anicka Yi: In Love With The World was curated by Achim Borchardt-Hume, Director of Exhibitions and Programs, Tate Modern, Mark Godfrey, former Senior Curator, International Art, Tate Modern, and Carly Whitefield, Assistant Curator, International Art, Tate Modern. Produced by Petra Schmidt, Production Manager.