Fossil Fairy, Arctic Shaman

Inspired by her embodied experience in the Svalbard archipelago, Wendi created a set of AR filters that transpose forms of fossils and bones onto the face. The High Arctic has historically been subject to mythmaking and continuously serves as a site of preservation, intervention, and extraction in the Anthropocene. But the Arctic is also full of records of the Earth: fossils and bones are both sites for ancient DNA extraction, which then provide crucial information on extinct biological life and earth history. Through a combination of ritualistic fossil tattoos, 3D bone ornaments and playful interactions, these animated digital filters actively imagine an intimacy with prehistory and with the Arctic.