TICK TERRARIUM 2020

Year
2019-2020

Author
Laura Beloff

The project was initiated in 2019 in collaboration with Kira O'Reilly. The Tick Terrarium is created by Laura Beloff in 2019 and final version 2020

Tick Terrarium (Beloff 2020)

At the same time as humanities are calling for reassessment of our worldview and increased affection towards non-humans, ticks crawl in the forests and cause feelings of fear and loathing in humans – due to the diseases they spread. The Tick Terrarium operates at the intersection of art, technology, and critical ecology. It functions both as a wearable biosystem and a provocative sculptural device, challenging dominant notions of human exceptionalism and the boundaries between host and parasite, human and non-human, fear and care.

By employing glass, microclimate habitat for ticks, and a wearable interface, the work transforms the human body into a life-support system for ticks—a species generally viewed with fear, disgust and associated with disease. This intimacy foregrounds the material and ethical entanglements between humans and their parasitic co-inhabitants. The Terrarium’s dependence on the wearer's body heat, oxygen, and care points toward a cyborgian ecology, where the human becomes part of a symbiotic or even adversarial assemblage with other species. The piece references historical biotechnological research on weaponization of ticks, underscoring the dual role of science and technology in both the control and exploitation of non-human species. It engages with themes of biopolitics, ecologies, and the instrumentalization of life.

At the same time, The Tick Terrarium confronts the contradiction within the contemporary call for increased care and empathy toward non-humans: How do we extend affection to organisms that disgust or harm us? Can art and technology mediate these affective tensions, and what does it mean to wear the parasite as a gesture of uneasy kinship?

The tick terrarium is a self-contained, secure habitat designed to safely display live ticks. The wearable device is made of glass tubes with lids to prevent escape. It has fine mesh air vents with micron-scale screening to allow oxygen flow.