Sentinels are the name given by environmental scientists to organisms whose sensitivities to environmental change help to understand the health and vulnerability of an ecosystem. Sentinel organisms in the world's oceans have been studied for years in order to understand the effects of microplastic pollution. However, recent research has shown that microplastic pollution is also found within human bodies, suggesting that humans have joined the ranks of the sentinel species to our global plastic addiction.
The Sentinel Self is an immersive artwork that spans across multiple scales of an aquatic world inhabited by human-like beings who share a common environment between the outer and inner seas of their bodies. Within these beings exists an ever-evolving process of ecosystem maintenance by various interacting agents. This is realized as a real-time simulation inspired by the human immune system, as well as recent scientific work on possible immune reactions to microplastics in our blood. As the simulation evolves, this inner world is transformed by flows of microplastic particles. The audience becomes witness to a blurring of the boundaries between earthly and bodily oceans, alluding to the reality that humans do not only transform the world, but that the world also transforms us in return.

Created by Sissel Marie Tonn

Lead Unity Developer - George Simms
3D world building and design - Zuza Banasińska
Music and Sound - Jonathan Chaim Reus
Interaction designer and hardware developer - Sam Bilbow
Rigging and animation - Sarah Fernandez
3D Modeling - Sissel Marie Tonn
Project support - Chee Yee Tang
Texts - Heather A. Leslie & Sissel Marie Tonn

Scientific advisors Area Science Park - Alessio Ansuini, Francesca Cuturello, Alberto Cazzaniga, Lisa Vaccari

Immunology advisor - Juan J. Garcia Vallejo

Supported by

S+T+ARTS
Area Science Park
Stroom Den Haag
Creative Industries Fund NL
Sussex Humanities Lab & Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science

Repairing the Present received funding from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology under grant agreement LC01641664.

Sissel Marie Tonn is a Danish artist based in The Hague. In her practice she explores the complex ways humans perceive, act upon and are entangled with their environments. Her work centers around moments of awareness and shifts in perception, where the boundaries between our bodies and the surrounding environment begin to blur. Tracing and capturing these moments often result in hybrid, interactive installations and objects, where the audience is invited to engage in a sensory and participatory way with the stories and data at hand. She imagines her work as “training grounds” meant to challenge our pre-configured modes of perception, attention, and sense of self, and shed light on how our biology as well as our cultural conditions influence the ways in which we perceive and subsequently act upon our surroundings.