Kamil Adam Hassim - String Theory

Multiple cultures and societies of human beings have existed throughout history, and were annihilated and erased by other groups of humans. Long before colonialism, the planet was inhabited by several species of human beings of which homo-sapiens were the fastest spreading. Many of these early humans, like Naledi and Sediba, lived here in South Africa. Their remains were found in caves near where our largest radio telescopes are now located. In a desert as old as the ancient supercontinent, arrays of dishes, the MeerKat and the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), look into the cosmic abyss. They peer at the stars and galaxies whose elements and minerals are fossilized in the bones of humans from millennia past. Stars, whose carbon, iron and gold lie as arteries in our earth, the mantle that birthed all known life.

Not much has changed about us in all this time. Today humans are still killing humans. Much of the planet however has been changed irrevocably, and we are the greatest force responsible. Beyond this destruction, we are building a wall of noise that risks permanently separating us from the magic of the universe. Satellites forever bury the Milky Way under a blanket of light, sonic and electromagnetic waves, whilst disrupted ecosystems, plastics and pollutants augment our DNA forever. Algorithms and AI systems absorb and regurgitate a narrow slice of humanity and claim it’s all that’s ever existed. We are wiping the world's stories away and are destroying our ability to ever sense them again.

String Theory is an instrument designed to reconnect to lost ancestral language and reawaken the voices and songs of the universe which are being forgotten. Similar to South African radio telescopes, String Theory is a working particle detector driven by a mythological family of string instruments, the Sutras. 

Our earth is constantly bombarded by cosmic rays, ancient beams of energy from outer space. Colliding with our atmosphere they leave traces of invisible energy from particles that the Sutras are tuned to hear. Everytime a cosmic ray strikes the earth in the atmosphere above the instrument array, the Sutras sing to tell us it’s there. It is an extension of our bodies’ senses, a thread of connection to the whispers of the ancient cosmic voices that are all around us. 

String Theory is curated by Javett-UP Interim Curatorial Director Storm Janse van Rensburg and Javett-UP’s curatorial team.

About Kamil Adam Hassim

Kamil Adam Hassim (b.1997, Durban, South Africa) is an artist and cosmo-technologist whose practice operates at the intersection of art, frontier science, and indigenous knowledge systems. His work investigates how different cultural and technological frameworks produce distinct realities and the resulting social, technological, and spiritual possibilities they make available.

During his Master's programme at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, Hassim was awarded the prestigious Connect residency at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and the major Astronomical observatories in South Africa for his work and research. These engagements have grounded his practice in dialogue with scientific communities working at the limits of perception and measurement. 

Central to Hassim's work is an inquiry into how different knowledge systems (scientific, cultural, and spiritual) shape the perception and organisation of information. Drawing on diverse fields, Kamil works across a vast range of media and techniques. His polyvalent practice often results in plural forms and pushes material boundaries, treating aspects of space-time, matter, and energy as artistic media.