A Beautiful Accident invites us to revisit the ideas that have shaped the nature of consciousness and explore what new developments in the field mean for artistic practice. The program of events helps navigate the frontiers of discovery so that, in consideration of other lively agents, we may better question the nature of our being and begin to articulate what consciousness is in an ecological era. Rashik Parmar discusses how our cities may become even smarter with the advent of Artificial Intelligence systems, while Kevin Warwick explores the impact of neural implants on consciousness. Julie Freeman considers the entanglements between ecology and consciousness, while Susan Stepney discusses how materials ‘compute’ decisions without possessing a central organizing system. Simone Ferracina & Rolf Hughes discuss the Experimental Architecture Group’s work on potentially conscious ‘bricks’ that operate through the metabolisms of microorganisms, and Erin Manning draws our attention to the assumptions made by ‘neurotypicals’ that foreground the world in a particular way. A Beautiful Accident creates a space in which strongly-held preconceptions about the nature of consciousness are challenged, so that we may explore the frontiers of discovery in these challenging and confusing times to coexist with various forms of nonhuman consciousness, and go beyond the interiorized states of self-awareness that are so familiar to us.

– Dr. Rachel Armstrong