Jemma Foster is a multi-disciplinary writer, artist, curator and practitioner of plant and vibrational medicine. Her work explores more-than-human intelligence, interspecies communication and emerging technologies. She actively advocates for the agency and rights of plants, speaking before international policy makers and business leaders.
She is the founder of botanical studio Mama Xanadu and transmedia art collective Wild Alchemy Lab, which publishes an augmented-reality print journal exploring the intersection of ecology, science and esoterica. She is co-founder of award-winning creative studio Semantica, and their artworks have been commissioned by galleries and institutions and exhibited worldwide.
She is the author of Sacred Geometry (2020) and Wild Alchemy Lab: An Astro-Botanical Remedy Deck (2023).
BIO
After an MA in English Literature (with philosophy and international law) at Edinburgh University, I began a career as a journalist (The Guardian, Time Out, The Times) and scriptwriter (Alexander Berberich, Rachel Rose Seely), publishing a series of short stories (The Cardboard Book Project) before turning to food and drink as a medium for storytelling on board narrowboat Xanadu.
This gave rise to a decade of in-depth study into plant and vibrational medicine - herbalism, wildcrafting, ethnobotany, homeopathy, astrology, alchemy, sound healing, sacred geometry and energetic practices - that evolved into experimental botanical studio Mama Xanadu. As a chef and mixologist, I designed astro-botanical and immersive dining experiences and consulted with leading brands on product development, campaigning for food sovereignty and regenerative agricultural systems.
As a response to, and vehicle for, distilling our experience in a time of crisis in 2020, I founded mixed media publishing house, arts collective and curatorial agency, Wild Alchemy Lab: an educational resource producing short films, XR content and a biannual, augmented-reality print publication Wild Alchemy Journal. Global contributions from artists, academics and researchers explore the elements of earth, air, fire, water and aether in each issue. In 2023, WAL hosted Oneiric Soils - dreaming with plants - a social dreaming experiment and residency for artists to explore vegetal relations in liminal realms.
In the same year, I co-founded independent XR film studio and research lab Semantica, with projects exhibiting worldwide. Our sound installation, A Tale of Two Seeds: Sound and Silence in Latin America’s Andean Plains, in collaboration with Atractor, was awarded the Golden Nica for Digital Musics and Sound Art at Ars Electronica 2023. The work depicts the expansion of technical agro-industrial colonisation in Latin America, through comparative sonic landscapes of genetically-modified soy monocultures versus amaranth polycultures using ancient indigenous technologies. I have presented at international festivals and summits such as COP28, advocating for the agency and rights of plants, and the need for businesses and institutions to put nature on the board.
Wild Alchemy - An Astro-botanical Guide to the Magic, Myth and Medicine of Plants will be published this October by Laurence King. I am currently working on a number of artistic collaborations exploring plant agency and vegetal politics, that will be exhibiting internationally, including the Istanbul Digital Arts Festival, the Turin International Photography Festival this spring.
XR Film and installation studio investigating interspecies communication, non-linear linguistics and ecopsychology through the technoetic arts. Awarded Golden Nica Prix Ars Electronica 2023 for Digital Musics and Sound Art for A Tale of Two Seeds, Sound and Silence in Latin America’s Andean Plains, a sound installation project in collaboration with Atractor Studios.
Semantica
2020 – Current
Co-founder, Director
@semantica_productions
Wild Alchemy Lab
2020 – Current
Founder, Creative Director & Editor
@wildalchemylab
A resource for seekers, makers and imaginators. A multi-sensory publishing platform and global collective of artists, academic researchers and occult practitioners exploring nature, science and esoterica at the intersection of plants, planets and people. WAL publishes an augmented-reality, carbon-neutral print journal, with each issue navigating an element of earth, air, fire, water and aether.
Mama Xanadu
2014–Current
Founder, Director
@mamaxanadu
A multi-disciplinary experimental botanical studio offering wild mixology, immersive dining experiences, creative workshops, consultancy and product development. Current research is focused on the potential for embodied therapeutics of plants and planets through social dreaming practices.