In 1977, British palaeontologist Simon Conway-Morris discovered the fossil of a truly weird animal, which he named Hallucigenia because of its “bizarre and dream-like quality”. He wasn’t kidding. The creature was so strange that it took fourteen years for scientists to work out which way up it stood.
In 2021, we created a virtual mentorship named after this incredible creature, looking to create a safe fun space to collaborate, guide, inspire and challenge artists working in the intersection of arts, storytelling and science.
Hallucigenia interacted with the aquatic world surrounding it, 508 million years ago and it took more than a decade for scientists to figure out which end of this spiky worm housed Hallucigenia’s head.
Is it art? Is it science? Is it science+arts? Is film included? Is virtual reality really film? How technological should a piece be? We’re not here to figure this out but to celebrate the mysteries and wonders of artistic projects with a heart in science. Wherever the tail or the head may be.
