“A Living forest” was created by Panopticum at WAHA Festival 2016 as an expansion of The Clockwork Snail that we did at WAHA 2015. Located at a very communicative place at the entrance of the festival area, it was an elaborate version of a consciousness catalyst containing a 3D cryptographic embodiment device in its core.

At the entrance of the installation, the visitor meets a violet-hooded attendant who asks him to ponder on the relativity of time and space in an inviting and open conversation with them. Then, a lively female assistant leads them into the antechamber, shrouded by long strips of ethereal neon fabric pieces while both her voice and the surrounding sounds get distorted by a portable sound system. In the central space the visitor discovers the cryptographic embodiment device. It is a structure, consisting of an upside-down six-angled pyramid of ethereal net-like walls inscribed with flowing neon glyphs, mounted in mid-air on a wooden hexagon and tightened to a big mammal bone in the ground. The bone is surrounded by candles and shimmering frankincense that fills the space around with its scent. After having decoded the parts of the scripture needed according to the inner state of the visitor and the direction of our common awareness, I would blindfold them, leaving them in the hands of an attentive guide. He would then take them along the vestibule while letting them touch mosses and tree barks. At the end, a snail-like creature helps the visitor squeeze through the long carapace-like Lycra tunnel and get out of the installation.

The consciousness catalyst in the Living Forest was a true creation of our artistic minds: a vibrant manifestation of a noble artifact, brought to Earth by an otherworldly civilization that aims to show how conscious observation of inner experience connects the mind to the Universe.