'Indexed Beings' Film Screening + Artist Talk co-presented w/ Forgan Arts

We are delighted to welcome artists Helen Knowles and Soraida Chindoy for a screening of 'Indexed Beings', followed by a conversation co-hosted by Rowan Lear, Curator at Forgan Arts Centre and Anne Daffertshofer, SABG Art and Cultural Programmes Curator.

What happens when plants are no longer treated as specimens, but as sentient beings capable of knowing, acting, and creating their own worlds. How might this transform the production of scientific knowledge?

 is the second in a trilogy of artist films by Helen Knowles, developed through her practice-based PhD at Northumbria University. Filmed in Mocoa, Putumayo, Colombia, the work was made in partnership with members of the indigenous Kamëntsá, Inga, Cofan and Siona communities and the Herbario Etnobotánico del Piedemonte.

The 42-minute film centres on the re-enactment of a dispute that took place in the Herbarium of Piedemonte, Mocoa, in the Colombian Amazon, between a scientist and a local taita (shaman) over the role of the herbarium. For the scientist, it is a vital tool to defend territory from exploitation and protect its biodiversity; for the taita, plants are autonomous, intelligent beings that cannot be catalogued. Through performance, collaboration and dialogue, Indexed Beings explores plant sentience and asks how knowledge shifts when we recognise more-than-human intelligence, asking whose knowledge really counts?

The screening will be followed by a conversation with artist, Helen Knowles and collaborator and participant in the film Soraida Chindoy Buesaquillo, an indigenous guardian, mother and activist who is working to defend the sacred Putumayo mountains.

CREDITS FOR FILM 

Indexed Beings has been developed with staff at the Herbario Ethnobotanico del Piedemonte based in Mocoa, Putumayo, Colombia with: Director, Jorge Contreras, members of Colectivo Selvas Vivas, Puerto Guzman, Manuel Mueses; Centro Etnobotanico, director and founder of Sana que Sana alongside members of the Kamëntsá, Inga, Cofan and Siona community who are indigenous to the territory of Putumayo, Colombia. Ethical considerations were supported by Felipe Castelblanco (University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland FHNW). Translation in Colombia was supported by Professor in Latin American film and culture, Deborah Martin, (UCL), transcription and translation of material has been supported by the University of Essex and University of Sheffield, Ross Hambleton, James R McNally and Anna Armijo Gallardo. Sound Disposition (UK) sponsored the project by loaning sound equipment and Northumbria University provided a travel grant for Helen Knowles's return flight. A massive thank you to everyone involved so far for all the support and good will, kindness and hospitality during my stay in Mocoa. S-H-E-D are supporting Helen Knowles in the continued development of the project Indexed Beings, including a tour of the film in the UK and in Europe.

BIOGRAPHIES

Soraida Chindoy is an indigenous guardian, mother and activist who is working to defend the sacred Putumayo mountains. The territory is also home to 56 lagoons considered sacred by the Indigenous people and represents the meeting point between the Amazon rainforest and the Andes. This area is currently endangered by the establishment of a copper mine. 

Helen Knowles (b. 1975) is an artist working with expanded forms of moving image. Her practice examines the intersection of immateriality and life, focusing on responsibility, autonomy, and ethics in relation to technology, AI, and the non or more-than-human. Knowles explores the digital world through a planetary lens. Working collaboratively with indigenous communities, medics, scientists, lawyers, crypto specialists, midwives, childbirth professionals and inmates. Her use of performance and film focuses on the relational and generative qualities of discourse. Knowles’ early work, 'YouTube Portraits' (2012), a series of seven large-scale screen prints, presents portraits of women in childbirth, sourced from YouTube homebirth videos. This series explores social media as a democratizing tool for personal, often censored experiences. In 2016, Knowles premiered 'The Trial of Superdebthunterbot', a performance, film, and installation addressing the ethics of AI and the automation of our lives. The work featured the real trial of an algorithm, with two lawyers and a jury at Southwark Crown Court, asking whether a non-human entity could be held accountable in law. 'Trickle Down, A New Vertical Sovereignty' (2020), explored wealth disparity and the witnessing of financial transactions via blockchain and auctions. It included a functional sculpture and four videos, revealing the technologies behind blockchain and showing a spectrum of participants, from oligarchs to inmates bidding on paintings, digital objects, kitchenware, and plants. The work earned an honorary mention at Ars Electronica. In 2023–2025, Knowles produced two artist films, 'Indexed Beings' and 'Caring Code', alongside 'Trust the Medicine', an immersive installation. These works engage with non-human, more-than-human, and human voices through psychedelic medicine, AI, and plant intelligence. They explore the agency of these entities in diverse cultural and cosmological contexts, employing a decolonial approach to unravel ancient and contemporary tools of care.

Recent and forthcoming exhibitions include ; Neort Gallery Tokyo, Gallery North, Northumbria Uni (2025), Science Gallery, London, Hyundai Motor Studio, Beijing (2023), Alberta University of the Arts, Leuphana University (2022), Hannover project, Kunstlerhaus Graz, Oil Tank Cultural Park, Seoul, (2021), arebyte Gallery, London, Ars Electronica (2020). The Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Hannover Kunstverein, 104 Paris (2019) Centre de Cultura Comtemporania del Carme, (2018) ZKM, Karlsruhe, Zabludowicz Collection, London (2017). She won an honorary mention at Ars Electronica in 2020 and was nominated for the Jarman Moving Image Award 2025. 

TOUR DATES SO FAR

• 13 Nov    University of Brighton Screening Room, Edward Street, 3.30pm – 5.00pm 

• 14 Nov    Psychedelic Studies Dept, University of Exeter, Sir Henry Wellcome Building room G17, Streatham campus, 3.30pm - 5.30pm 

• 21 Nov    Spore Collective, Berlin 7.30pm - 9.00pm 

• 27th Nov Galgael Trust, Glasgow Time TBC 

• 29th Nov Forgan Arts Centre / St. Andrews Botanic Garden, Fife 6.00pm - 8.30pm 

• 3 Dec     UCL Latin American Studies Dept (Time TBC) 

• 4 Dec       Chelsea Physic Garden, London 6.30pm - 8.30pm 

To increase accessibility, we have chosen a sliding scale for our ticket prices. If you can afford a full-price ticket, and would like to support others to attend, please choose an upper-tier "pay it forward" ticket. If you would like to attend, but affording a ticket is a barrier, please contact Anne ([email protected]) to register for a free of charge ticket. All donations and ticket sales are essential in allowing us to continue offering events such as these - we're grateful for all our supporters who attend our events and are advocates for our work.

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