The work provides a tool for processing the emotional consequences of recognizing our entanglements with non-human agents. Scientific advancements in the last 20 years (from Symbiotic Theory to insights regarding our microbiome) tend to provoke a loss of the sense of discrete separation between a person and the environment.

The acceptance of this situation is part of what Timothy Morton calls Ecognosis: ‘… is becoming accustomed to something strange, yet it is also becoming accustomed to strangeness that doesn’t become less strange through acclimation’.

Self Diffuser is an experience comprised of two parts: a physical and a digital. For the physical, users are invited to roll four dices and draw the four cards with the corresponding numbers. Each card contains a short story involving Ergot and humanity, serving as a priming mechanism to reflect about entanglements.

The digital aspect is a VR experience where users can retreat to. It is designed to be a slightly anxious-inducing space, texting the users capacity to stand being small and powerless. It is purposefully designed to remove control.

At the center of the experience is the Diffuser: a wooden engraved Octahedron: a shape referencing dice and chance. The Diffuser is an object which allows us to safely ponder our existence beyond self. It is an enclosure where we still exist, only merged with the environment. It holds together all the random chances of the universe. Shuffles them around for us to see, to contemplate. The giant dice you can see shuffling inside carry on their faces the images of each card.

Surrounding the main object we find four consumable offerings, each one representing a different aspect of the entanglement between humanity and Ergot.

In his book Ways of Being, James Bridle states that “we're just becoming aware of other intelligences that have been with us all along, even if we've failed to recognize or acknowledge them.” He asks whether we can learn from these intelligences, as well as from the technologies we've developed, mainly Artificial Intelligence, "to live better and more equitably with one another and the nonhuman world."

My position is that to pursue this goal, we must first come to terms with our fragility, recognize that we are parts of complex interrelated systems, and accept a partial loss of control over our destiny.

This challenge can be daunting, especially in the context of a hyper-individualistic society where we were raised to believe in the atomized rational agent in control of their future. Beyond this characteristic of our times, there is a comprehensible reaction of anxiety when confronted with the prospect of fuzziness in the boundaries that define who we are as individuals. We realize that our sense of self is an essential tool for our proper functioning as conscious beings. Self Diffuser aims to be a cathartic, therapeutic tool for navigating the space of personal representation. It seeks to guide its users from a state of anxiety to acceptance and even enthusiasm for the possible future. It aims to be a catalyst.

Ergot seemed like an interesting species for this task. Throughout history, encounters with ergot have led to the loss of self in various ways: physically, through the gangrene produced by its vasoconstrictor effects; mentally, through both intended and unintended hallucinations. Ergot derivatives have also been used for the interruption of pregnancies and as a labor inducer. Yet, humanity has turned to ergot seeking enlightenment and meaning. Countless humans and non-humans contracted ergotism by chance, just as Hoffman discovered LSD by chance. Yet, we learned to make the most out of these chance encounters.

In embracing the uncertainty of our interconnected existence and exploring unconventional paths like Self Diffuser, we open ourselves to the transformative potential of chance encounters. Just as humanity has historically navigated the unknown, our journey forward involves not only understanding our fragility but also embracing the unexpected with curiosity and resilience.