soft turns
soft.turns@gmail.com

> Gallery 44 exhibition
> thinking alongside itself book and essays ( 1, 2, 3) by Weiyi Chang
> thinking through the milieu - reading group
> CV

Our practice begins with looking closely at matter, natural processes and the non-human or human-made systems surrounding us, in order to think through contentious sites of human interaction, on earth, in space, and in the ever-expanding digital and virtual realms. Overlooked or imperceivable phenomena (like cosmic radiation, thermodynamic systems, entropy, soil, computer circuitry, life experiences of plants) are particularly compelling. These areas of activity often exhibit a strange fluidity between material and immaterial associations (like in tangible movements of ‘information’ through energy transfer in the physical world). We attempt to follow the rhythms of these subjects using simple mechanisms: gears, pulleys, optic fibers and our own bodies, along with stop-motion animation, to stretch and collapse the (human) experience of time. Research, DIY experimentation, conversation and our senses guide us through shared environments, resulting in contemplative video-centered installations.

cold data still 1cold data (still) cold data was inspired by the story of an HVAC system failure causing an actual rain cloud in an early Facebook data centre. We built a model of a data center from scraps and computer parts, and filmed it encountering extreme weather effects (heat mirage, ice, clouds, etc). After ‘wilding’ the model for the summer on a farm, we exhibited it alongside the film as a reconfigured sculptural installation.

cold data EXCERPT (4K video, 2025)

cold data still 2cold data (still)

cold data [exhibition 1].jpgcold data and rare earth (installation)
Photo documentation by Darren Rigo at Gallery 44 (Toronto, 2025)

cold data [exhibition 2].jpgcold data (installation: wood, aluminum heat sinks, aluminum sheeting, copper, particle board, corrugated acrylic, LED lights, optic fibers, jumper wires, electrical cords and sheathing, staples, foamcore, soil, rockwool, clay pebbles, glass beads, vinyl sticker, various species of moss and plants including Streamside leptodychtium, Heart-leafed spear-moss, Knieff's hookmoss, Common pocket moss, Tree-skirt moss; Tattered Jellyskin lichen, Wood sorrel, Fringed Heart-wort and Arabidopsis Thaliana, 2025)
Photo documentation by Darren Rigo at Gallery 44 (Toronto, 2025)

cold data [exhibition 3].jpgcold data (detail)
Photo documentation by Darren Rigo at Gallery 44 (Toronto, 2025)

cold data [exhibition 4].jpgcold data (detail)
Photo documentation by Darren Rigo at Gallery 44 (Toronto, 2025)

rare earth 1rare earth (series of collages, two inkjet prints mounted on polarized film salvaged from LCD screens, 2025). Each collage integrates aerial photographs of human-altered (agricultural/industrial) landscapes with those of circuit boards. The resulting image is analyzed by image recognition software and included in the title.
Photo documentation by Darren Rigo at Gallery 44 (Toronto, 2025)

rare earth 2rare earth (terraced resistors) series of collages of paired inkjet prints mounted on polarized LCD screen film.
"AI description: aluminium (97%), crystal (93%), art (84%), ammunition (80%), weapons (80%), painting (75%), female (70%), mineral (68%),..."

rare earth 3rare earth (wellbore diodes) series of collages of paired inkjet prints mounted on polarized LCD screen film.
"AI description: The object in the picture is a **collage or mixed-media artwork**. It combines two distinct visual elements: 1. **Aerial view of agricultural fields:** This segment features circular and square patterns of varying shades of green and brown, characteristic of center-pivot irrigation systems used in modern agriculture. 2. **Circuit board (Printed Circuit Board - PCB):** Overlaying and integrated into the agricultural landscape are segments that resemble a green circuit board with visible traces, solder pads (some with components or solder points), and some alphanumeric markings (e.g., "9149", "5838", "2639"). The artwork appears to draw a visual parallel or contrast between natural/agricultural landscapes and human-made technology/circuitry...."

cold data [exhibition 5].jpgcold data
Photo documentation by Darren Rigo at Gallery 44 (Toronto, 2025)

cold data [on farm 1]cold data (documentation of the filming on Buttrum's Farm, Hamilton, 2025)

cold data [on farm 2]cold data (documentation on Buttrum's Farm, Hamilton, 2025)

cold data [on farm 3]cold data (documentation on Buttrum's Farm, Hamilton, 2025)

thinking alongside itselfthinking alongside itself by Weiyi Chang, published by Gallery 44 (Toronto, 2025)
See link

cold data [on farm 3]Thinking Through The Milieu During our residency at G44 (2023-2024), we hosted seven public reading group sessions on decentralized thinking and non-human intelligences. Close readings of feminist, queer, decolonial and ecological texts were paired with embodied exercises, prompting contemplative group discussions.
See link

Humans in a BottleHumans in a Bottle: Material and Immaterial Ecosystems by soft turns, peer-reviewed essay published in PUBLIC Journal 70: The Weather (2025), edited by Joel Ong.

reach (stop-motion animation, 2018) This collaboration with agrogeologist Peter van Straaten animates roots growing towards and drawing nutrients from rocks embedded with computer parts. Unlike traditional scientific models involving constrained cross-sections and static imaging techniques, our time-lapse version documents in-the-round, attempting to witness the plant’s agency through the multiplicity of movements of its roots.



Based in Toronto, Canada, Soft Turns is the collaborative effort of Sarah Jane Gorlitz, of settler descent, and Wojciech Olejnik, who immigrated from Poland as a child. Over the years, our political, ecological and personal worldviews have become irreconcilable with western hegemony and capitalist society, and we’ve gratefully sought out opportunities to learn from and forward Indigenous knowledges. As artists living in a climate crisis we have a responsibility to reflect critically on the ways humans perceive and interact with their environments - elements of which are often dangerously overlooked, yet if examined, consistently unfold into astounding complexity.

Lately, we have been researching non-human decentralized and self-organizing intelligences from plants to ant colonies, watersheds to AI networks. We cultivated this interest during a recent Gallery44 artist residency where we hosted a reading group series called Thinking Through The Milieu. Here, close readings of feminist, queer, decolonial and ecological texts were paired with embodied exercises, prompting contemplative group discussions. When faced with examples of non-linear decision making, self-organizing systems, brainless organisms solving complicated spatial problems and ecosystems maintaining their own climate, it becomes abundantly clear that “non-western” and even “non-human” knowledge offer useful insights into more ecologically responsible ways of interacting with the material world. Parallelly, our virtual realm (specifically, our expanding internet infrastructure) has material impacts (land, water and resource use, accessibility issues, electronic waste) that cannot be ignored. Our work draws attention to this strange fluidity between what is considered material or immaterial and the implications of our engagements with both realms. Our new works materialize our questioning of the continued ecological impact of both ‘new’ technologies and ‘old’ human ways of thinking, resulting in contemplative video-centred installations that encompass many media including sculpture, collage, and stop-motion animation.

Sarah Jane received her MFA from Malmo Art Academy (2011), Sweden, and Wojciech, from the University of Waterloo (2002), Ontario. We live with our two children in an artist Co-Op in South Etobicoke, and have undertaken residencies at Gallery 44 (Toronto, 2023-2024), the School of Environmental Sciences, University of Guelph (2016-2019), Trinity Square Video (Toronto, 2015), La Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris, 2013) and USF Verftet Bergen (2013). Wojciech’s writing has been published in Frieze, Momus, C Magazine and Canadian Art, and we recently published a collaborative essay in PUBLIC Journal. Feature articles about our practice have appeared in Esse - Contemporary Art Magazine and Canadian Art, and we’ve received support from The Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council and Edstrandska Stiftelsens, Sweden. Exhibition highlights include: Gallery 44 (Toronto), Belkin (Vancouver), Nuit Blanche 2023 (Toronto), The Plumb (Toronto), 8eleven (Toronto), Art Museum at the University of Toronto, OPTICA, Centre D’Art Contemporain (Montréal), Stride Art Gallery Association (Calgary), Southern Exposure (San Francisco), Skånes Konstförening (Malmö), Foundation 3.14 (Bergen), and Videobrasil (São Paulo).

We would like to gratefully acknowledge support for the creation of cold data from the Toronto Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts. We are also very grateful to Buttrum’s Farm in Hamilton for hosting our model in summer 2025.


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