Too Many Birds in One Tree

Too Many Birds in One Tree emerges from an entanglement of posthumanist philosophy, indigenous cosmology, and cybernetic theory. The work is conceptually rooted in Katherine Hayles’s How We Became Posthuman, particularly her proposition that the body is “the original prosthesis” by which we “learn to manipulate” our environment, then this elemental aspect of human being has merely been extended by recent technological modes of human evolution – the cybernetic, virtual, computer simulated etc; secondly, that the “essential function” of all life, even “the great cosmos itself,” is “processing information”. This video work begins with that premise: that the universe, in all its complexity, is a vast processor of data. Too Many Birds in One Tree explores humanity’s audacious drive to simulate, reflect, and even control that cosmic complexity. Inspired by the Dayak Ngaju creation myth — where the first mountain rises up to the clouds; and from there, the Tree of Life appears — this artwork reimagines that sacred cosmological symbol as a digital organism. Here, the tree functions as both data network and mythic entity, channeling connections between all beings: human, non-human, machine. The digital Tree of Life symbolizes interconnectedness and ancestral kinship, echoing ancient beliefs that all forms of life are bound together. Yet this network, like our digital ecosystems today, is vulnerable. Overwhelmed by data — represented as proliferating celestial birds — the system becomes unstable. What was once a harmonious web begins to fragment under the weight of excess, cascading into collapse. Through a narrative entwined with myth, ecology, and digital fragility, Too Many Birds in One Tree invites deep contemplation on the precariousness of our technological ambitions and the urgent need to recalibrate our relationship with the natural and digital worlds. By fusing indigenous cosmology with cybernetic systems, the work crafts a speculative ecology — one that echoes ancient wisdom that, despite our technological progress, we remain fundamentally intertwined with the cosmos and all life forms, urging us to ponder our place within this grand, interconnected web.