Join QUT Galleries and Museums Engagement Coordinator, Renae Belton, on a tour of 'As Above, So Below' at QUT Art Museum.

The term ‘as above, so below’ has its origins in an ancient, cryptic text known as the Emerald Tablet. Drawn from a Latin interpretation and adopted by a number of different belief systems, the phrase is commonly used to describe the idea that the microcosm mirrors the macrocosm and vice versa. It can be interpreted to mean that events in the spiritual world are echoed in the physical world, or what exists in the digital or virtual world mimics that in the real world. Further, it might suggest that what occurs inside the human body is mirrored in the surrounding environment, or what happens on a small scale will also take place on a large scale.

In our current state of climate crisis, whereby seemingly minute changes in temperature and sea levels threaten catastrophic changes to the broader ecosystem, ‘as above, so below’ becomes a warning. As Above, So Below brings together new and recent works by Australian and international artists that engage with our environment by investigating hidden ecosystems, plant communication, endangered species, air quality, eco-acoustics, posthumanism, plant/human relationships, and more.

As Above, So Below forms part of the creative program for the International Symposium of Electronic Art (ISEA), one of the world’s pre-eminent electronic art symposiums.

Image: Scenocosme (Grégory Lasserre and Anaïs met den Ancxt) Pulsations (detail) 2013–2024 sound installation. Courtesy of the artists.

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For any queries, contact QUT Art Museum on +61 7 3138 1384 or artmuseum@qut.edu.au