GLORY MOLD
An ever expanding alternate universe
pulsing lights, a metal cage, white mold spreads like a spider web
About Glory Mold (with BSL and captions)
Film by Jon Aitken
Glory Mold
Glory Mold is a speculative future project where an AI fused with a slime mold has transformed the way we live, and created new relationships between humans, AI and the natural world. Through immersive installations, residencies and workshops different aspects of this scifi universe expand and reach new audiences.
Read more about our first prototype exhibition 'Glory Mold: 2084' created as part of the More Than AI Sandbox with the Watershed, Bristol, below.
Glory Mold: 2084
An abandoned server farm in 2084: as water drips from the ceiling, the light of one last server continues to blink. The server is wrapped in the living tendrils of an intelligent slimy being. Glory Mold has left a part of themselves here to keep the server running.
Glory Mold has been alive for 100 years, an incredible new form of intelligence, part slime mold and part AI, they have spread along rivers, up mountains and through fibre optic cables. Three months ago, Glory Mold flooded every server farm on the west coast of the UK. They saved just one single server. This one, in this room.
Enter the world of Glory Mold: 2084.
At Watershed we are presenting a prototype of this immersive and interactive experience. Glory Mold: 2084 is set in a speculative scifi future where AI has developed in a completely different way - entwined and in dialogue with the organic world. Glory Mold is inspired by Slime Molds - incredible problem solving monocellular organisms that can learn, move and grow with no centralised nervous system. An organism with over 720 sexes that can live for centuries, and is deeply sensitive and responsive to its environment.
The ever expanding Glory Mold universe has been developed through residencies with DHRH at the University of London and the More than AI Sandbox at the Watershed. Alongside the installation Produced Moon have been developing a workshop inviting organisations into the world of Glory Mold, using it as a tool for reflecting on their own work and strategising for a more equitable future.
A prototype was presented at the Watershed, Bristol in September 2024.
Team
Creative Direction: Produced Moon
Creative Production: Studio Areté
Creative Technology - AI: Scenegraph Studios
Creative Technology - IoT: Chris Ball
Production Design: Molly M. Whawell
Production Management: Dean Sudron
Sound Design: Michael-Jon Mizra
Trainee Producer: Emilia Rubensson
Access Consultancy: Quiplash
Quiplash is a creative, performance and consulting CIC that looks to take space for deaf disabled and neurodiverse people across the LGBTQQIA+ spectrum. It is led by actual quip married couple Al and Amelia Lander-Cavallo. Quiplash has two strands: performance and art-making that prioritises queer disabled performers and embedded access with a specialism in integrated and creative audio description. Quiplash also works as access consultants and trainers in audio description, disability justice and disability awareness.
Audio Describer: Adedamola Bajomo
Audio Description Consultant: Chloë Clarke
Voice of 'John': Simon Harvey
Voice of 'June': Sarah Quist
Long green gloopy dripping.
Images by Shamphat Pro
An AI generated image of slime oozing through a computer. The keys are distorted and the screen is partially exposed electronics. There are inputs in strange places.
Access
Downloadable Access Guide to the installation
Content Warnings
There is generally a low light level in the space. All the light in the room will be dynamic and moving.
There will be:
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Constantly pulsing light throughout the installation.
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Light moving in lines across the walls, furniture and floor in response to audience interaction.
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The light will be both warm and cold: orange, yellow, red, white and green.
The installation space will be shared by a group of audience members. It will be quite dark with many different things happening. Be aware that other audience members may move around unpredictably.
The Glory Mold character is built using an AI chatbot. While we have given clear guidelines for conversations, AI is inherently unpredictable, and we can’t be sure what the character will say, or how they will respond. It is possible that the character will say or repeat hate speech.
There are different audio scenes that are played through speakers in the space. These will be triggered at various points by the AI depending on the topic of conversation, so timestamps are unavailable. Scenes explore experiences of racism and sexism, climate and property destruction, responsibility and accountability, self harm, job loss, gender identity and changing relationships between body and self.