⁽⁰⁾An Ecology of Beasts: An interactive collective experiment in digital ecologies

An Ecology of Beasts is a research-driven project by Common Index that revisits medieval bestiaries as speculative systems for understanding the world. Rather than approaching bestiaries as collections of isolated creatures, the project treats them as ecologies: interconnected structures where myth, belief, observation, and imagination coexist. In medieval culture, beasts were not simply animals, but ways of describing behaviors, environments, and relationships within a shared system. Starting from this perspective, An Ecology of Beasts translates the logic of the bestiary into a contemporary digital context. Through an open call, participants reinterpreted different creatures from a custom digital deck through video, generating a heterogeneous yet cohesive collective bestiary. Presented as a physical exhibition, the works coexist within a non-hierarchical display system, while an interactive generative installation – Cartography of Entangled States – shapes the ecological conditions in which they appear. Conceived as an open system rather than a closed artwork, An Ecology of Beasts becomes a framework for collective experimentation: a space where practices, imaginaries, and interpretations overlap, interact, and remain in dialogue over time.

Participants were invited to draw a medieval creature from a digital deck and reinterpret it through video. The result is a heterogeneous set of works spanning 3D, generative systems, AI experiments, filmmaking, motion design, text-based pieces, and DIY approaches. Diversity becomes the core condition of the project.

All works carry equal weight. Rather than being selected, ranked, or arranged into a narrative, the videos rotate across multiple screens following a self-regulating logic based on the time since last display. The system decides, not the curator. This mechanism transforms the exhibition into a living structure: relationships continuously shift, proximities change, and no work occupies a fixed or privileged position. Cohesion does not emerge from similarity or control, but from coexistence within a shared infrastructure.

Cartography of Entangled States is the interactive installation that expands An Ecology of Beasts beyond the open call. If the collective bestiary gives form to individual interpretations, the installation gives form to the environment they inhabit. Inspired by medieval mappae mundi, it maps conditions rather than places. Presence, movement, sound, and environmental data shape a responsive digital landscape where visitors become part of the system.

The installation is driven by a set of environmental and contextual inputs that continuously feed the system. The landscape responds to people’s presence, movement,
and the overall sound level of the room, using these signals to modulate its configuration and behavior.