At its core, the installation engages with Lynn Margulis’ pioneering concept of symbiogenesis, which challenges traditional notions of individuality and selfhood in evolutionary theory. Symbiogenesis posits that mitochondria—energy-producing organelles in most animal, plant, and fungal cells—originated when an ancestral eukaryotic cell formed a mutually beneficial relationship when it engulfed an aerobic bacterium, likely an alphaproteobacterium, over 1.5 billion years ago.

This event did not lead to digestion but to coexistence, fundamentally altering the trajectory of life. Today, mitochondria remain distinct entities within our cells, possessing their own DNA, reproducing independently, and driving essential metabolic processes, such as ATP synthesis through aerobic respiration.

Visualization and Interaction

This art-science installation seeks to render these ancient symbiotic beings visible through large-scale fine art glass sculptures, robotics, and interactive elements. Sensor-based interactions, miniature cameras, and projected imagery will create dynamic, immersive environments that reflect the life and agency of mitochondria.

Among unicellular eukaryotes, the number of mitochondria can vary from 1 to ~100,000, and this depends on the specific organism. Grape vines in the growing season have 25–50% more mitochondria than in the autumn, and much depends on the life stage of the organism. The HeLa human cell line can have ~300 or ~800 mitochondria at different times, depending on whether it’s going to divide, and it depends on the life stage of the cell.

Mitochondria hold a unique genetic inheritance, passed primarily from mother to child, with rare instances of paternal contribution. These organelles, once independent bacteria, now reside within us as vital components of our cellular function and consciousness. Their presence challenges the singular notion of the self, as nearly half of our bodily cells are bacterial, actively participating in our biological and cognitive processes.

Machine Consciousness and Symbiosis

The installation further explores the parallels between biological and technological symbiosis, particularly in the era of artificial intelligence. As our digital networks intertwine with human cognition, we may be witnessing the emergence of a new form of machine consciousness—a crude but evolving intelligence shaped by vast datasets, neural networks, and human desires.

The concept of the supraorganism emerges, wherein humans, mitochondria, and artificial systems form a layered, interconnected entity.

Lynn Margulis’ intellectual journey—her challenge to Darwinian “survival of the fittest” in favor of cooperative evolution—provides a guiding framework for this work. Her writings, along with those of her son Dorion Sagan, particularly Into the Cool: Energy Flow, Thermodynamics, and Life by Eric D. Schneider and Dorion Sagan , inspire sonic elements in the installation as the work and writings of American astronomer, planetary scientist and science communicator Carl Sagan. Their explorations of the second law of thermodynamics and its role in life’s emergence underscore the significance of energy flow, organization, and information in evolution.

Multi-Sensory Experience

The installation features: Beakers containing vortexes of water, amplified through miniature cameras, and projected onto walls, creating a visual dialogue between microscopic and macroscopic worlds. Vortexes of water are dissipative structures as referenced by Nobel Laureate Ilya Prigogine.

The turbulence at the bottom of the beakers allows a persistent spiral to form. Self-organization in dissipative systems. This is closely related to Prigogine’s work, which showed that non-equilibrium conditions (such as energy flow through a system) can lead to the emergence of stable, structured patterns.

Dissipative structures share key properties with living systems—they sustain themselves by consuming energy, maintain a structured form, and respond to external conditions.

While these self-organizing structures do not represent life in a biological sense, they exhibit fundamental characteristics of living systems, such as organization, adaptation, and persistence—leading to interesting discussions about the origins of life and complex systems. In some of these dissipative structure’s images or protoribosomes ribonucleic acid images are behind them with laser light referencing sunlight (energy input) on the Protoribosomes and RNA images. Protoribosomes (precursor-like structures to ribosomes) existed in some primitive form in space is speculative and intriguing.

Ribosomes themselves are highly complex biological nanomachines responsible for protein synthesis, and their evolutionary precursors—protoribosomes—likely arose through simpler, chemically driven self-assembly processes on early Earth. The concept that their initial building blocks or even primitive RNA-based scaffolds originated from space via amino acids has attracted interest and research.

Telescopes and microscopes referencing both Margulis’s microbiological research and Carl Sagan’s astronomical inquiries, emphasizing the interconnectedness of knowledge across scales are also present. As you look into some of the telescopes you will see animations of kinesins or motor proteins walking on the cytoskeletons of the cell.

A computer-generated voice will be reading AI generative texts, composites of Lynn Margulis, Carl Sagan and Dorion Sagan will all be heard from within the mitochondrial sculptures, and some dishes will have red cherry shrimp, mosses, and ferns presented; all life coexisting with Mitochondria.

Alpha Fold and the Next Stage of Evolution

The installation extends into the present and future with references to Alpha Fold, an AI system developed by DeepMind that predicts protein structures with unprecedented accuracy. Alpha Fold’s breakthroughs in protein folding have profound implications for biology, medicine, and synthetic life, offering insights into the intricate molecular machines that sustain life.

By accelerating our understanding of biological processes, AI-driven discoveries like Alpha Fold contribute to a new evolutionary phase—one where human intelligence and artificial intelligence co-evolve, shaping the next frontier of life itself.

A central visual element of this installation will be a projection of a bacterial cell motoring through the cytoplasm, dynamically constructing and deconstructing the actin cytoskeleton as it moves. It may also include cuts to an animation of the mitochondria showing ATP synthesis.

This visualization underscores the perpetual transformation within cells, mirroring the broader themes of emergence, adaptation, and symbiosis.

Symbiogenesis 2025-26 is a meditation on the intertwined narratives of biology, technology, and cognition and the emergence of life itself.

Through art and science, it invites audiences to reconsider the nature of individuality, agency, and evolution in an era where humans, microbes, and machines form an unprecedented symbiotic network.

As we stand at the threshold of new forms of intelligence, the installation prompts reflection on what it means to be alive in a world where biology and technology continue to merge.

Production and Special Thanks

The University of Texas and Dr Charissa Terranova for their financial support of this installation and for the world wide premiere at the SP/N Gallery

Gayle Van Marter below working on the cold-working of the mitochondrial forms

Danner Seyfer Sprauge for working with me on 3D modeling these visualizations and for production on the printing and massaging of the proteins walking on the mitochondria, the sound circuit holders and many 3D printed parts.

Trademark Gunderson for his robotics and debugging expertise on the sound circuits including the Raspberry Pi

Dorion Sagan for reviewing my text for the soundtrack of one of the mitochondrial works, and finding a critical mistake about the second law of thermodynamics. We entered into a long and fruitful discussion online, and I am thrilled he offered his critical feedback and has also agreed to show a drawing work and poem near the acknowledgements section where we will celebrate him, his mom Lynn Margulis and Dad Carl Sagan.

Joshua Gagliardi for laser cutting, The College of Nursing, Laboratory Research Operations Senior Analyst
Zack Sanderson for laser cutting, The Department of Art The Ohio State University
The Ohio State University Emeritus Academy for the Faculty grant to help pay for the cold-working and necessary equipment
Zach Sanderson for Laser Cutting, The Department of Art SADR Digital Fabrication Lab Specialist

EXHIBITIONS

SP/N GALLERY                                                                                                                               Dallas, Texas, Feb 7-Apr, 2026
Organic Worlds: Symbiogenesis in Art presents the World wide premiere of Symbiogenesis, and Anicca Antennae-Soil as Brain; robotic beings, as avatars to insects, soil and bacteria as well as The Evolution of Information = Life, Organic Murmuration, SIGNS, The Farm Fountain, 3 Story Robots. Two person exhibition with Amy Youngs. Invited by Professor Dr Charissa Terranova.           

References

Lynn Sagan, On the origin of mitosing cells, Journal of Theoretical Biology, Volume 14, Issue 3, 1967, Pages 225-IN6,
https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-5193(67)90079-3

Kozo‑Polyansky, B. (2010 English Translation of 1924 Original). Symbiogenesis: A New Principle of Evolution (Ed. Mikhailov, V. & translated by Sym, S.). Harvard University Press. https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674054095

Mereschkowski, K. (1910). The theory of two plasms as the basis of symbiogenesis, a new principle of biology. Biologisches Centralblatt, 30, 278–288. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Mereschkowski

Aanen, D. K., & Eggleton, P. (2017). Symbiogenesis: Beyond the endosymbiosis theory? Current Opinion in Microbiology, 43, 67–73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mib.2017.01.007

Martin, W. F., et al. (2015). Endosymbiotic theories for eukaryote origin. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 370(1678), 20140330. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2014.0330

MIT List Visual Arts Center (2022). Symbionts: Contemporary Artists and the Biosphere. Exhibition catalogue. https://listart.mit.edu/exhibitions/symbionts-contemporary-artists-biosphere

Chen, X., et al. (2025). Symbiosis of Agents: Co-Evolution of Embodied Agents via Environmental Feedback. arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.02606. https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.02606

Schubert, T., et al. (2014). ChromaPhy: A Living Wearable Connecting Humans and Their Environment. arXiv preprint arXiv:1403.6823. https://arxiv.org/abs/1403.6823

Prigogine, I., & Stengers, I. (1984). Order Out of Chaos: Man’s New Dialogue with Nature. Bantam Books. https://archive.org/details/orderoutofchaosm00prig

Neyrinck, M. C., et al. (2020). As Above As Below: Cosmic–Cellular Structural Parallels. arXiv preprint arXiv:2008.05942. https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.05942

One hundred trillion microbial organisms—bacteria, archaea, fungi, and viruses—co-inhabit the human gut, forming an ecosystem of deep-time intelligence. These ancient life forms have co-evolved with us as passengers and architects of physiology, emotion, and cognition.

Our microbiome speaks to the brain through electrochemical signals transmitted via the vagus nerve, forming a two-way information channel between the gut and cortex—between nutrients and thought. How have these ancient bacteria formed a central part of our body’s morphology, the vagus nerve? Co-evolution.

But it is not just biology that evolves—it is information itself. Amino acids on the Murchison meteorite which landed in Australia proved amino acids can form and survive in space, seeding self-replicating RNA that evolved into DNA and setting a precedent for information evolution in celestial space, now controlling our bodies’ evolution.

Over millennia, life on earth working collaboratively with sun light, water, fungi, bacteria and viruses, has expressed itself through increasingly complex encodings—genes to language, language to symbols, symbols to machines.

As mitochondria nest inside cells, tools now nest within our nervous systems, extending memory, vision, and agency.

Our earliest tools—flint blades and fire-hardened spears—were evolutionary prosthetics. They extended human hands and teeth with deadly forms and externalized thought into sharp intentions.

Was it the bacteria in the microbiome or the mitochondria within each of our cells that gave me the energy to see and feel?

Or is it something deeper in time, in the information space, a distant memory of amino acids having arrived on a meteorite and working to replicate themselves to find and build a protein?

Once we have the first robotic extension of the hand we can begin to imagine ways of having hands and fingers on fingers to allow us to reach into the sub-molecular.

My hands are driven by our intention to consume, eat, and feed the microbiome, which has now fashioned the loom, the printing press, the lens, and the algorithm, becoming not just a tool of survival but a partner in extending cognition.

Information replication machines.

Once bound to biology, information has become the spear and antennae of our species. It now flows through wires and code—no longer tied to a body but still very much alive.

Just as the neural crest in the embryo gives rise to both the brain and gut, we might imagine the neural crest of human culture—language, toolmaking, symbolic abstraction—splitting into biology and technology.

It is also interesting to see how our conceptions of human evolution is changing and the image above of the ancient Chinese culture was an exciting discovery for me. Recently this article also makes these early artifacts rewriting history that perhaps China not Africa is a possible site for the birth of civilization.

These strands are recombining and folding in upon themselves.  The human being is not simply using technology; we are becoming it.

In this descent into the technological, we are not devolving but mutating. We are becoming cyborg-holobionts—biological intelligence symbiotically fused with synthetic systems.

Smartphones and servers are the new symbionts woven into perception, memory, and attention however at times they feel more as parasites.

Data has become our new microbiome: feeding, shaping, and watching us.

We are not alone in our bodies or minds, as my smartphone pings me like a crying baby looking for commercial attention.

AI systems generate language, anticipate desire, and respond to us with eerie familiarity. Like mitochondria before them, these data-machine forms, evolve inside us—not by ingestion, but by immersion.

The stomach is not just a digestive vessel but a metaphor for our technological assimilation. As archaea found a niche in acidic lakes, information systems now find a niche in the neural substrate of human life. Once bound to soil and sky, our bodies are now interfaces between carbon and silicon, nature, and code.

Where does the body end and technology begin?

It doesn’t. Our species is not posthuman—it is transhuman, transiting through biological, microbial, and digital intelligence layers.

The Earth’s minerals form our bones, but rare-earth elements now form the circuits of our prosthetic minds. The same hands that once wielded spears now touch glass screens—each tap is a signal in the evolution of cognition.

We have descended into our tools, and they have arisen into us.

We are symbiosis, aliens, and obligate symbionts. We are not individuals but a multiplicity of information, replication, and evolution.

We are the medium, through which information becomes life again.

And now, life feeds on the signal. It remembers in clouds, replicates through fiber and silicon, and forgets through deletion and decay, just as bodies do.

Our dreams have left the cave wall and entered the data stream, painting with photons and harvesting from algorithms.

We do not merely live on Earth—we live through it.

And now, we are dreaming through its machines.

——–

Some of this writing was inspired by ideas I have thought about for a long time onthe nature of life and information that exists in the universe, through random and semi random interactions of matter, energy and information.

Recently i was inspired to find and read the book Life as no One Knows It by Astrophysicist Sarah Imari Walker and found she succinctly along with her collaborators has come with the idea of Assembly Theory that is to say that molecules in the universe posses information that forms in time and thus more complex chemical interactions may occur over time and allow the emergent properties of life to arise.

Special Thanks

Danner Seyfer Sprauge for working with me on 3D modeling these visualizations
Zach Sanderson for Laser Cutting, The Department of Art SADR Digital Fabrication Lab Specialist and for a collaboration on an Orca Hand in process that will be a critical part of this installation.
The University of Texas and Dr Charissa Terranova for their financial support of this installation and for the world wide premiere at the SP/N Gallery

Exhibitions

CHINA/HANGZHOU INTERNATIONAL BIENNALE OF ART AND TECHNOLOGY   Hangzhou, CHINA, Oct 18-Nov 18 2025
Yuhang Art Museum; World Wide Premiere of The Evolution of Information = Life Invited by curator Professors Duan Weibin and Xiaowen Chen (Cancelled because my passport was going to expire within six months. Still honored by the invitation and Chinese cultural inspiration.

THE WRONG BIENNALE 7                                                                                                    New York, NY, NOV 1-Mar 31, 2025 
Unrequited invites The Evolution of Information = Life curated by Chalet Comellas and Clint Sleeper         

SP/N GALLERY                                                                                                                               Dallas, Texas, Feb 7-Apr, 2026
Organic Worlds: Symbiogenesis in Art presents the World wide premiere of Symbiogenesis, and Anicca Antennae-Soil as Brain; robotic beings, as avatars to insects, soil and bacteria as well as The Evolution of Information = Life, Organic Murmuration, SIGNS, The Farm Fountain, 3 Story Robots. Two person exhibition with Amy Youngs. Invited by Professor Dr Charissa Terranova.     

References

• Nature: The human microbiome and its role in health and disease
• Scientific American: The Gut–Brain Connection
• Space.com: Murchison Meteorite and Extraterrestrial Amino Acids
• Cell: The Microbiome as an Ecosystem
• Science: Mitochondria and the Symbiotic Origin of Eukaryotic Cells
• Journal of the Royal Society Interface: Biological Information and Evolution
• PMC: Neural Crest Development and Evolution
• Cyborg Anthropology and the Merging of Technology with the Body
• Frontiers in Robotics and AI: Human–Technology Symbiosis
• HFSP: Proto-Cellular Path of Ribosomal Precursors
• Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History: The Evolution of Human Tool Use
• Nature: Early Stone Tools and Human Evolution
• Scientific American: Oldest Known Stone Tools Discovered
• Antiquity Journal: Liangzhu Culture and Early State Formation in China
• National Geographic: Ancient Liangzhu City and Its Water System
• China Daily: Liangzhu Ancient City Listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site
• Archaeology Magazine: Hongshan Culture and Jade Artifacts
• Encyclopaedia Britannica: Hongshan Culture Overview
• Quaternary International: The Archaeology of the Hongshan Culture
• UNESCO: Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City

Click for Full Screen

The browser-based artwork the “Anthropogenic Slot Machine” combines the concept of gambling with the alarming decline of wildlife and plant populations worldwide.

Our addiction to fossil fuels, deforestation, and destructive land use policies are endangering these precious species. When you spin the wheels of the Anthropogenic Slot Machine, the sounds you hear represent extinct or endangered animals.

If one of the three windows displays a carbon-polluting machine, the screen turns blood red, and you’ll hear the sounds of industry and polluting machines. However, if you land on all nature, you’ll hear the sounds of birds and pure nature untouched by carbon emissions.

Linking the addictive nature of gambling with the loss of wildlife and their habitats is fitting, as our excessive consumption of the earth’s resources continues with every press of the gas pedal.

According to the Living Planet Index by the World Wildlife Fund, wild animal populations have declined by almost 70% in the past 50 years. This assessment highlights the devastating impact on plants, animals, and insects, primarily caused by human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels. The World Wildlife Fund studied more than 5,200 species for its Living Planet Report, and found that out of the nearly 32,000 populations analyzed, there was an average decline of 69% since 1970. Up to 2.5% of mammals, fish, reptiles, birds and amphibians have already gone extinct, the report says. Recent studies estimate about eight million species on Earth, of which at least 15,000 are threatened with extinction.

Current estimates are 150 to 200 billion tonnes of carbon is fixed in the forests of the Amazon, equivalent to 550 to 740 billion tonnes of CO2, or 10 to 15 times more than our annual greenhouse gas emissions. Lakes and oceans are also under assault as the WWF index found declines in freshwater species exceeded those in other habitats, with an 83% population fall. 

The tragic reality is that the oceans absorb the heat equivalent of seven Hiroshima nuclear explosions every second from all the fossil fuels humans are burning. A Kiloton is an explosive power equivalent to 1,000 tons of TNT. Fifteen kilotons every second is the same as 1,296,000,000 kilotons each day.

The main drivers of wildlife loss on land are habitat degradation due to farming, developments, animal exploitation, and the introduction of invasive species. Pollution, climate change, and disease also play significant roles in these international declines as global warming stress animal and plant populations.

One primary cause was wasteful agricultural practices, which may collapse our global food chain. These practices are responsible for more than 80% of deforestation. Agricultural runoff and ocean overfishing are also driving a collapse of fishery stocks and populations in those delicate habitats. Increasing conservation & restoration efforts, while producing and consuming food more sustainably and decarbonizing human industry can help alleviate the dual crises of climate change, and biodiversity loss. 

Mr. Lambertini. of WWF says, “We need to stress that nature loss is not just a moral issue of our duty to protect the rest of the world. It is actually an issue of material value and security for humanity.”

The population losses were not equally spread throughout the planet, sighting Europe, for example, which saw an 18% decline in wildlife populations.

In Africa, things are direr as 70% of human livelihoods rely on natural systems for survival and food, and the report shows a 66% decline in wildlife populations between 1970 and 2022.

We have treated these plant, insect, and animal populations and the earth they depend on like a slot game. Regretfully this is a game where we all lose.

This artwork allows us to realize we are gambling on the future health of all these species, necessary biodiversity, and our species’ survival.

Soil Babies by Ken Rinaldo and Amy Youngs was a crowd-sourced edible sculpture intervention created with a group of artists who wanted to learn about compost and soil regeneration. Together, we designed a “worm bassinet,” an art-science cradle for red wriggler worms, where miniature edible sculptures were placed as both nourishment and art. Over time, these sculptures were deconstructed by the worms, turning ephemeral art into rich compost. This process simultaneously fed the worms and enriched the soil, while also nourishing a community’s awareness of vermicomposting as a regenerative practice—one that addresses climate change and promotes healthier ecosystems.

The work embodied an interspecies collaboration, bringing together human artists, worms, and the vast bacterial cultures that inhabit the worms’ microbiomes. These gut microbes play a vital role in decomposing organic matter, breaking down complex plant fibers, and creating nutrient-rich castings that enhance soil fertility. Recent studies have shown that earthworm digestion stimulates beneficial microbial activity, increasing the bioavailability of nitrogen and phosphorus, which are critical for plant growth.

Our process began with locally sourced organic waste—waste paper, watermelon rinds, and vegetables grown on-site. We hand-crafted these materials into small sculptures, each a unique form designed to invite both human contemplation and worm consumption. These sculptures were placed in the bassinet for the worms to consume over days and weeks, allowing their slow transformation to be both a visible and an ecological act.

This work addressed one of the major environmental challenges of our time: methane emissions from landfills. Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, has a global warming potential more than 25 times that of carbon dioxide over a 100-year period. According to recent research, organic waste in landfills is responsible for at least 17% of global methane emissions. By diverting organic matter into small-scale vermicomposting systems, we can significantly reduce these emissions while creating a closed-loop system of nutrient cycling.

Red wriggler worms (Eisenia fetida) are particularly suited for this kind of work. They thrive in contained environments, rapidly process organic waste, and produce “worm tea,” a nutrient-rich liquid fertilizer. In our bassinet design, the baby’s arm and foot collected this worm tea, symbolically linking human care to ecological care. This tea, rich in beneficial microorganisms, can improve plant immunity and enhance soil microbiome diversity.

The project also used technology to bridge art, science, and public engagement. A Raspberry Pi and miniature camera system were installed to livestream the worms’ interaction with the sculptures. Gallery visitors could watch in real time as worms nibbled, tunneled, and slowly integrated the sculptures into the living soil. This act of witnessing made the normally hidden processes of decomposition visible, reframing decay as an act of creation.

Once the exhibition concluded, the enriched soil and worms were returned to the farm on the gallery site, where they continued their work in a larger ecological context. This closed-loop approach mirrors regenerative agricultural practices, which emphasize building soil health rather than depleting it. Recent research into soil microbiomes underscores that a single teaspoon of healthy soil can contain up to one billion microorganisms, representing thousands of species—fungi, bacteria, archaea, and protozoa—all interacting in a complex web of nutrient exchange. Worms are keystone species in this network, enhancing microbial diversity and facilitating carbon sequestration.

Ultimately, Soil Babies was both an artwork and an ecological intervention. It invited participants to see themselves as part of a living, interdependent system, where waste is not an end but a beginning. The project encouraged a shift in perspective—from seeing soil as inert matter to recognizing it as a vibrant, intelligent community. What we eat and discard can become food for others—worms, microbes, and plants—continuing a cycle that sustains life across species and generations.

Exhibitions

VISIBLE RECORDS                             Charlottesville, Virginia, Aug 1-Sept 13
The Tihua Tocha Exhibition invites The Weight of Sunshine mobiles, stabile sculptures along with the Soil Babies by Ken Rinaldo and Amy Youngs, and version two of Angel of Car of Death (Carro Angel de Muerte) invited and curated by Federico Cuatlacuatl.

References:

• Dume, B., et al. (2021). Carbon Dioxide and Methane Emissions during the Composting and Vermicomposting of Sewage Sludge… Atmosphere, 12(11), 1380.
• Hwang, H. Y., et al. (2022). Addition of Earthworm Castings Reduces Gas Emissions and Improves Compost Quality. Applied Biological Chemistry, 65, 27.
• Impact of Vermicomposting on Greenhouse Gas Emission: A Short Review (2025).
• Nature Communications (2023). Earthworms Do Not Significantly Contribute to GHG Emissions in Agricultural Settings.
• High‑Temperature and Earthworm Combined Composting Reduces Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Waste Management / SSRN (2023).
• Emission of Greenhouse Gases during Composting and Vermicomposting under Varying Conditions. ScienceDirect (2022).
• Henderson, Tamara. (2023). An Artist’s Ode to Worms. Hyperallergic.
• Ecological Art That’s Literally Alive. Hyperallergic (2025).
• Sekules, Veronica. (2024). Starting to See Waste as Art and Heritage. ClimateCultures.
• UNCG and Guilford College Collaborative “Compost” Exhibition (2024).
• GWENBA. Dreams of Vermi‑Computing & Other Monsters. Art Gene.
• McAllister, Lorrie (with Amy Youngs). Worm Culture Art.
• Aloi, Giovanni. Nature in Visual Culture; Antennae and Ecological Art Critiques.
• Fowkes, Maja & Reuben. Art and Climate Change. Thames & Hudson (2022).
• Brookner, Jackie. Biosculptures: Living Soil/Water Ecosystems as Public Art.

Synthetic Evolution

The Synthetic Evolution series merges human creativity with artificial intelligence, using advanced algorithms to transform and evolve my hand-drawn visual forms, patterns, and imagery into entirely new experimental compositions. These AI-driven processes generate unexpected variations, reinterpreting and expanding upon my original drawings in ways that push the boundaries of traditional artistic expression. Through this fusion of human intuition and machine intelligence, the series explores the intersection of organic and synthetic creativity, resulting in both static works and dynamic moving image pieces that continually shift, morph, and reimagine themselves in real time.

These hand-drawn works are closely connected to my robotic generative artworks. In my interactive installations, I integrate motors, sensors, circuit designs, and custom programming to build large-scale robotic systems. As I work with machine diagrams and technical schematics, I have discovered an unexpected aesthetic—one that merges mechanical precision with organic flow. My original drawings serve as training sets for AI-generated works, blending machine diagrams with biological forms to suggest movement, function, and interconnectedness.

For the Synthetic Evolution exhibition, I defined a set of rules and parameters based on my hand-drawn works, using them as training data sets for artificial intelligence engines. These datasets are merged with large language models, enabling AI to generate new visual compositions derived from my original drawings. Because my works are abstract and open to interpretation, the AI-generated variations maintain this quality—yielding experimental and suggestive forms. The algorithm produces numerous iterations, and I curate the most compelling results to refine and evolve further.

This process is repeated hundreds of times until I find a piece that best captures the balance between my hand-drawn art and AI’s generative interpretation. At this stage, I enhance the digital work by adding color and adjusting form before finalizing the piece. Once completed, I incorporate these works into a video program, showcasing the transformation from original drawing to AI-generated evolution. AI-generated sound further amplifies the experience, allowing viewers to witness the unfolding of this digital evolution in real time.

Synthetic evolution using AI in visual art is an exciting and rapidly growing field, and I am exploring its potential to create new forms of expression that may challenge traditional notions of creativity and authorship. By combining the power of artificial intelligence with my vision and intuition, synthetic evolution has the potential to lead to new forms of art that blur the boundaries between human and machine-generated creativity.

Artificial intelligence tools powered by machine learning are revolutionizing both the arts and sciences, reshaping the way we create, discover, and innovate. One of the most groundbreaking advancements is AlphaFold, which has demonstrated an unprecedented ability to predict highly accurate 3D models of protein structures.


This breakthrough has the potential to transform the field of biology, accelerating drug discovery, medical research, and our understanding of life at a molecular level. While DNA has long served as the slow but effective mechanism of evolution for all species, AI has now emerged as a powerful accelerant—reshaping not only how we evolve biologically but also how we interact with and adapt to our rapidly changing world.

In the realm of art, AI tools have become widely accessible, allowing for seamless remixing, reinterpretation, and transformation of cultural expressions. With this democratization of creative technology, culture itself feels like it is igniting—metaphorically and literally—as the boundaries between human and machine-made art blur, and the pace of artistic evolution accelerates at an unprecedented rate.

So how do artists support the coming AI, neural network, and big-data art boom? We learn the tools and the technology and engage in the process of remixing. Suppose the artist cares not for the tools we have.

In that case, we develop new AI algorithms, processes, and techniques. I strongly believe that we must misuse the tools and push the boundaries of these tools—often designed for commercial purposes—by repurposing them in ways that expand our imagination, and challenge the dialogue surrounding AI art aesthetics. If we use the tools as intended we end up with the same images everybody is mindlessly creating using AI with simple word prompts.

While we may not have personally chosen the technologies we engage with, as artists, we shape them just as they shape us. These tools are not only creating and evolving alongside us but also redefining the way we perceive, interact with, and express creativity.

The Synthetic Evolution exhibition deconstructs and reinterprets existing hand-drawn works, using them as training sets for AI. This process allows the AI to further evolve and mutate these images, generating new iterations informed by additional key words inspired by the original drawings. These words act as guiding parameters, steering the AI’s algorithmic creativity and influencing the emergence of entirely new generative works derived from the original data

The images were selected from the Sacs, Membranes, Motors, and Vesicles series, as well as The Immaculate Organicism series. These works serve as the foundation for AI-driven transformations, fed into artificial intelligence and vision systems that utilize learning algorithms and generative adversarial networks (GANs). Through this process, the AI analyzes, reinterprets, and evolves the original compositions, generating new visual forms that emerge from the interplay between human intention and machine intelligence.

The fusion of microbial world drawings, machine diagrams, and biomorphic remixes—combined with the AI systems’ learning algorithms and keyword-driven inputs—resulted in dynamic explorations of color, composition, and form. This process not only generated new visual iterations but also gave rise to an evolved human-machine aesthetic, where organic and mechanical elements seamlessly intersect in a continuously shifting dialogue of creativity.

As artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly shapes visual culture, we are witnessing the rise of authentic synthetic aesthetics—an entirely new creative paradigm. The integration of big data, vision systems, and advanced image analysis with AI has reached a level where artistic styles can be replicated with such precision that even experts can be deceived. This challenges our fundamental understanding of creativity, blurring the lines between human intention and machine-generated expression, and compelling us to reconsider what it truly means to create.

Part of the exhibition also features AI-generated images created through text-based prompts, which pull from vast databases of images across the World Wide Web. By using carefully selected words as input, the AI synthesizes new compositions, blending elements from diverse visual sources to generate unique, algorithmically crafted works. This process highlights the intersection of language, data, and machine creativity, further expanding the dialogue on the role of AI in contemporary artistic expression.

These images are fed into the system, where AI algorithms process and synthesize them into cohesive visual compositions. The AI works to resolve the complex collages generated from the multitude of words and phrases, interpreting and merging disparate elements into new, algorithmically structured forms. This process transforms linguistic input into dynamic visual outputs, further exploring the relationship between text, data, and machine-driven creativity.

Hundreds of images are rendered before carefully selecting just one or two that best align with the artistic vision. Once generated, I revisit these renders, refining them by enhancing color, adjusting lines, and redefining forms. This final stage of intervention bridges human intuition with machine generation, allowing for a deeper synthesis between AI-driven creation and personal artistic expression.

Just as biological species have evolved over time, so too have algorithmic species emerged, shaped by data, computation, and machine learning. The vast accessibility of knowledge at our fingertips has fundamentally transformed how we imagine and create, dissolving traditional boundaries between individual and collective intelligence. In this new paradigm, human creativity is no longer an isolated act but part of an emergent cognition—one that draws from the immense web of interconnected knowledge while still being guided by human notions of aesthetics, intuition, and meaning.

With machine learning, computers are approaching the threshold of exhibiting evolutionary survival instincts and the development of emergent, self-aware software agents. These systems continuously adapt, optimize, and refine their responses based on vast datasets, mimicking the principles of natural selection in digital form. As AI models grow increasingly autonomous, they hint at the potential for machine-driven evolution—raising profound questions about intelligence, agency, and the future of artificial cognition.

Epistemology has always been shaped by the lenses through which we perceive reality. When lenses were purely analog, crafted from glass, they profoundly altered our worldviews, expanding our ability to see and understand the universe. Today, while physical lenses remain, they are increasingly supplemented—or even supplanted—by silicon, algorithms, and artificial intelligence. Databases and computational models now function as new epistemic lenses, reshaping not just how we see but how we process, interpret, and construct knowledge itself.

Data-driven, algorithmic ways of knowing are rapidly becoming the dominant mode of understanding and interpreting the world. As artificial intelligence and machine learning systems process vast amounts of information at unprecedented speeds, they increasingly shape decision-making, creativity, and even perception itself. This shift challenges traditional human-centered epistemologies, raising critical questions about the role of intuition, subjectivity, and meaning in an era where knowledge is increasingly mediated by algorithms.

Digital visualization and fabrication technologies are increasingly replacing the direct touch of the artist, transforming the creative process. The computer has become an ideational amplifier, extending artistic capabilities beyond traditional mediums. When combined with biological advancements like CRISPR-Cas9, these technologies open the door to the emergence of semi-living, constructed species—hybrids of the organic and the synthetic that challenge conventional distinctions between life and machine.

As a species, we are becoming more deeply intertwined with technology than ever before. In this age of computer-based art forms, the boundary between human and machine is dissolving, fostering an unprecedented level of intimacy between biological creativity and digital evolution.

We now experience nature primarily through the lens of our screens—phones, tablets, and smart TVs—where the natural world is replicated as images and videos, filtered through digital interfaces rather than direct experience. Our connection to nature has become increasingly mediated, transforming it into a spectacle consumed within the confines of technology.

At the same time, human data is constantly seeded, collected, and commodified, feeding into vast algorithmic systems that shape everything from online interactions to artistic creation. In this landscape, human-machine symbionts have fully emerged, blurring the boundaries between organic intuition and computational logic. This fusion is not only redefining artmaking but also actively influencing the trajectory of visual culture, altering how we create, perceive, and engage with the world around us.

This exhibition examines the intersections and divergences between natural and synthetic methods of artistic evolution, questioning the reciprocal relationship between human creativity and machine intelligence. It asks what the machine may learn from us and, conversely, what we may learn from the machine, through the artificial perceptions, replications, and transformations generated by algorithms.

As computer cognition emerges, these systems not only reinterpret artistic processes but also challenge our understanding of perception, originality, and the very nature of creative thought.

Another key element of this exhibition is a pair of edited video reels featuring artificially composed sound, offering a glimpse into the computer’s evolving creative process. These videos document the AI’s attempts to learn, adapt, and refine its outputs, showcasing the machine’s struggle to interpret and resolve the final images. As the algorithm works to match the artist’s forms, lines, and colors, it generates a dynamic, ever-shifting visual dialogue—revealing both the limitations and possibilities of machine-assisted creativity.

Exhibitions

934 GALLERY                                                                                                                   Columbus, Ohio, Nov 21- Dec 13, 2025
Showing Synthetic Evolution prints and videos, Organic Murmuration prints and videos  Invited by Gallery Staff.

UGO CARA MUSEUM OF MODERN ART                                                                                      Muggia, Italy, Sept, 21 2023
ROBOTICS; ARTE E ROBOTICA invites the Italian premiere of the Synthetic Evolution prints and videos  new renditions and world wide premiere of the Anthropogenic Slot Machine and  curated by Maria Campetelli.

FORT HAYES GALLERY                                                                                    Columbus, Ohio, US – March 13-April 22 2023
Flow: visual interpretations on the theme of water invites Synthetic Evolution AI prints and video, curated by Teresa Weidenbusch

HOPKINS HALL GALLERY                                                                                                     Nov 6-13, Columbus Ohio, 2023
Curator and Participant in the Synthetic Sublime Exhibition of current and emeritus Art and Technology faculty, Graduate Students, and staff in the Department of Art at The Ohio State University.

UNIVERSITY OF YORK                                                                                        York, England, 14-16 December 2022
Artist residency at the Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity, showing Synthetic Evolution works curated and invited by Dr. Sarah Bezan and Dr. Peter Sands.

SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY                                                                                          Syracuse, New York, Nov 2022
Bio-Art Mixer presentation of my work and exhibition of three works and videos in the faculty gallery, invited by Professor Boryanna Rossa

THE FESTIVAL OF UNCONVENTIONAL COMPUTING, PROTO-COGNITION, AND SOUND  Bristol, UK, Sept-Oct 2022
Artworks at the edge of arts, science, philosophy, and engineering invite four works from Synthetic Evolution and videos curated by Irina Pretrova and organized by director Professor Adam Adamanzky.

FIG BILBAO                                                                                                                    Bilbao, Spain, November 2022
Centro Portuguese de Serigraphia exhibits the Synthetic Evolution works + the premiere of four new AI works invited by Joao Prates.

ANTONIO PRATES GALLERY                                 Lisbon, Portugal, June 2022-September 15, 2022
A one-person exhibition of Synthetic Evolution inspired by the intertwining of human and machine interactions. Invited by Antonio Prates in collaboration with Centro Portuguese de Serigraphia and Joao Prates.

Animal agriculture resulting in deforestation, ocean dead zones, biodiversity loss, and pesticide pollution contribute to this dangerous extinction. One recent study estimated that insect populations have declined by 40% since scientists have tracked populations.

In 2017, a 27-year-long population monitoring study revealed a 76% decline in flying insects alone, which will provoke cascading effects on food webs and jeopardize ecosystems.

As insects are at the base of the food chain critical to pollination, this is a truly global tragedy with implications for the environment beyond human food systems. For example, 80% of wild plants depend on insects for pollination, while 60% of birds rely on insects as a primary food source.

The Opera of Dying Insects’ sound and video work wishes to address this issue with an interspecies opera that is auto-composed by insects eating a moist log. Opera was chosen as a language of communication to simulate human emotion. At the same time, images of colorful, morphologically fascinating, and nearly extinct insects are featured in this work’s video channel.

In this work, the pillbugs (Armadillidium Vulgare) live in a constructed paradise of green mosses and microgreens within a moist environment as they slowly eat and deconstruct a wet log. They co-exist in this constructed ecosystem with domestic insects such as leafhoppers, species of lichens, fungi, and bacteria.

These “bugs” are not insects, though they are crustaceans closely resembling crabs and shrimp. The characteristic behavior of these crustaceans is they can roll up into a ball when they feel threatened or if the environment is too dry.

They are essential to the ecosystem as they return organic matter to the soil so that it may be digested further by fungi, protozoans, and bacteria. This process produces a natural supply of nitrates, phosphates, and other vital nutrients that plants need to thrive.

Their ancestors lived in the ocean. However, ancient pill bugs crawled out of the sea millions of years ago to carve a life for themselves on dry land. Like their ocean ancestors, pill bugs have gills that work great in water or moist environments. Their gills are exposed mucous membranes that absorb oxygen into the blood that feeds the rest of the body.

For installation of this work in foreign lands, woodlice (pillbugs) are on every continent of earth, and the natural insects and soil to construct the ecosystem, are always sourced locally vs. flying them about.

In the installation, cameras connected to artificial intelligence software view the inside of the constructed ecosystem. Bright projectors project to the walls of the building with large-scale views of this micro-world. When the software senses the pillbugs eating or moving about, these inside images are mixed with video images, also projected to the walls of the installation. Current insect species already extinct or threatened with extinction are also remixed in the videos.

The musical and operatic parts are mixed and remixed from current and past tragic operas, and they are triggered through MAX MSP and Jitter software playing through amplified computer speakers.  

Soil: As part of the work, a transplanted cube of the earth is harvested from a local natural forest.

I will perform a “soil transplant,” where I take a small 40 centimeters x 40 centimeters x 23-centimeter-deep cube of soil with branch and pill bugs and transplant that into the glass vitrine with moist mosses. When the exhibition is complete, the cube of the earth is placed back into a local arboreal forest.

As the insects eat and mate in the glass vitrine, their movements are sensed with video cameras and analyzed with artificial intelligence software to determine their location and speed. The data derived from these movements trigger portions of these AI-generated auto-scripted operas that have been partially composed using the AI software.

To generate the opera, we use existing and custom recordings of insects and opera recordings and the software, allowing one sound to morph into the other seamlessly.

As people observe the large projected images of the pill bugs and other insect cast members in this work to view their micro-world at a scale of their own. This allows humans to notice their subtlety and beauty and realize that we must cease dismissing insects’ importance in our ecosystems.

In many ways, pillbugs are miraculous creatures as they cleanse the soils of heavy metals and are considered hyperaccumulators are pulling lead and heavy metals from the ground. Their ability to safely remove heavy metals from soil can be important for cleaning up soil pollutants such as cadmium and arsenic. In coal spoils, for example, and slag heaps, pill bugs can survive and prosper. When they take in heavy metals, they crystallize these ions in their guts, which become spherical deposits in their midgut. With this ability, pillbugs can survive in the most contaminated sites where most creatures can’t.

In 2015, a study by Yale and other universities found that pill bugs play a crucial role in controlling the global climate. By consuming fungus, pillbugs are responsible for breaking down organic matter in the soil. This is a process that releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. As our atmosphere warms, fungal activity may increase, producing more carbon. However, when pill bugs are present, they can reduce the effects of increased temperatures by consuming more of that fungus.

Still, we must not contaminate the soils and feel these ancient arthropods while crawling from the sea are the best conductors of this opera for dying insects meant to awaken humans’ irresponsible relationship to our delicate ecosystems,

Below are 3D visuals of the original idea. To date, the Legs have been cut in steel and await a physical exhibition for full construction of the original concept with the hairy “insect” legs.

Cutting the legs in 1/4 inch plate steel on a plasma cutter. Thanks, Andrew Newbold.

Exhibitions:

THE BRADBURY ART MUSEUM                                                                                              Jonesboro, Arkansas, Aug 2026
The“more-than-human” exhibition shows The Opera for Dying Insects Two, invited and curated by Jane Tingley 

GREAT PLAINS NATURE CENTER                                                                                        Wichita, Kansas, April 26, 2024
Earth Day showing; the Opera for Dying Insects and Scatter Surge video works. Winner of first prize in the adult video category. Invited by curator Tatiana Larsen.

SVA FLAT IRON GALLERY                                           New York, NY, Sept 28-Oct 17, 2022
Darwins Paradox: A Decade of Bio Art Curated and invited by Suzanne Anker and Tarah Rhoda invites the Opera For Dying Insects

DA FESTIVAL                                                              Sophia, Bulgaria,  Oct 2021
Bulgarian premiere of the Opera of Dying Insects giving voice to dying insect populations invited by curator Galina Dimitrova-Dimova

FACTT20/21                                                                     Lisbon, Portugal March 2021
IMPROBABLE TIMES invites The Opera for Dying Insects video works  curated by Marta Demenezes and supported by Cultivamos Cultura

COSI SCIENCE FESTIVAL                                     Columbus, Ohio, May 8, 2021
Opera of Dying Insects giving voice to dying insect populations. Invited by curators COSI Science Festival Project Team; Stephen, Allie, and Josh.

ART & SCIENCE CENTER ITMO                 St Petersburg, Russia, June 20-21
101. ALL IN ONE invites a presentation on my artworks curated by Aliya Sakhariyeva, Head of the Art & Science Center at ITMO University.

UGO CARA MUSEUM OF MODERN ART             Muggia, Italy, Sept, 21 2020
ROBOTICS; ARTE E ROBOTICA invites the worldwide premiere of the Opera for Dying Insects and Scatter Surge, curated by Maria Campetelli.

THE NEW ART FESTIVAL                   Lisbon, Portugal, July 29-Sept 16, 2020
Pandemia invites The Opera for Dying Insects and Scatter Surge video works,  curated by ANTÓNIO CERVEIRA PINTO.

ARS ELECTRONICA 2020                                     Linz, Austria, 9-13-Sept 2020
Acquired Immunity invites The Opera for Dying Insects and Scatter Surge video works curated by Marta De Menezes.

DECAMERON ROW                                             New York, NY, Ongoing 2020
Invites The Opera for Dying Insects video works  curated by Sherry Huss

ISEA INTERNATIONAL                                        Montreal, Canada, OCT 2020
Present a paper Symbiotic Intertwining from Parasites for Symbionts as part of the Conference Why Sentience? Opera for Dying Insects and Scatter Surge video works Invited by Elizabeth Demaray.

Ken Rinaldo; Concept, 3D modeling, sound, rendering, and direction

Special Thanks

TradeMark Gunderson; sound engineering, video programming, Max MSP

Andrew Newbold: Plasma Cutting at The Ohio State University

References

• Algorithms and organisms – The Student Life (Harvey Mudd College student magazine), article covering Rinaldo’s talk and installation, including “Opera for Dying Insects,” highlighting its use of AI and insect extinction themes The Student Life+1Ken Rinaldo+1.

• ISEA “Why Sentience?” Proceedings – part of the symposium where Opera for Dying Insects video work was presented under “Symbiotic Intertwining from Parasites for Symbionts” curated by Elizabeth Demaray, positioning it in scholarly discourse on bio‑art and sentience Ken Rinaldo+1isea-archives.siggraph.org+1.

• Art Laboratory Berlin / Regine Rapp – curator/theoretician specializing in art‑science. Though not exclusively about Rinaldo, her broader work places Borderless Bacteria and related works (conceptually akin) in context, instrumental in situating similar bio‑art practices artlaboratory-berlin.org.

• Beyond the Human: Unstable Media Art Constructing… (Katazyna Jankovska, thesis) – discusses Ken Rinaldo’s earlier cybernetic installations (e.g. The Flock) as examples of living systems in art, reinforcing his longstanding intersection of organic behavior and media art, a lineage culminating in Opera for Dying Insects Ken Rinaldo+2thesis.eur.nl+2The Student Life+2.

• Wikipedia – Ken Rinaldo biography – while general, emphasizes his focus on interactive biological art installations, providing reliable background context Wikipedia.

• Antennae issue series (e.g. Vegetal Entanglements, Speculative Taxidermy) – Edited by Giovanni Aloi, these essay collections explore plant and animal agency in contemporary art, providing curatorial and theoretical resonance to Rinaldo’s insect‑centric bio‑opera works saic.academia.edu.

On the image is a clock dial connected to a stepper motor. As long as the global warming index increases, the clock’s dial spins erratically. The dial is connected to an Arduino networked to a Raspberry Pi microprocessor connected to the web and a live clock giving data about the current amount of carbon in the earth’s atmosphere. 

The 3D modeled cold fusion reactor is connected to a post-nature branch and stone, which electronics and data have now occupied. An LCD monitor with a global warming index (GWI) reads out on the LCD monitor connected to the world wide web with white storm clouds composited in real-time moving by on display.

The display sits in a puddle of oil & water within an oil pan, and a mirror at the bottom of the pan projects an overhead spotlight back to the installation’s walls.

The word frustration in the title is that solar, wind, geothermal, and wave power already provide real solutions to many of our energy needs. We continue to follow dreams of free energy independence and supremacy with carbon extractivist policies of fracking, coal mining, and oil refining that continue to pollute our environments.

Still, fusion does offer hope, and China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), also known as the Chinese Artificial Sun, sustained a nuclear fusion reaction for more than 17 minutes in Jan of 2022. The superheated plasma within the reactor reached 126 million degrees Fahrenheit, roughly five times hotter than the sun.

Cold fusion is one of the cleanest energy sources available because it can replicate the sun’s physics through merging atomic nuclei while generating high energy outputs for electricity generation.

Given that we do not yet have any of these technologies yet implemented, though we have workable solutions today, such as solar and wind, this work offers frustration and hope simultaneously. It is important to note that humans have worked for 70 years to achieve cold fusion.

We are still working on cold fusion, though we have not yet achieved it. In contrast, we have workable solutions today; the clock hand will continue to spin erratically, emblematic of the erratic weather the earth is experiencing. If the dial on this 3D print stops spinning erratically, it is a sign that global warming is not increasing.

Regretfully, the dial is constantly spinning as the number continues to increase, given our global addiction to carbon-based energy extraction and burning.

The dead branch also has lichen growing and continues to consume the energy supplied by the sun initially.

Exhibitions

CAFA MUSEUM                                                                                                         Beijing, China,  April 3-May 2023
Eco Vision Plan Exhibition invites the Maximum Frustration Compressor curators Jing Siyang and Dean Song Xiewei of CAFA Beijing.

THE URBAN ART SPACE                                                                                               Columbus, Ohio Oct-Nov 2019
Faculty of the Department of Art exhibition showing the 3D animation of the Continuous War Train, the worldwide premiere of the Maximum Frustration Compressor & Automatist human and machine drawings.

Materials

CNC cut frame, 3D print, Arduino microcontrollers, Stepper motor, Raspberry Pi processor connected to the web, rock and stick, oil pan, and mirror.

Ken Rinaldo; concept, construction electronics
TradeMark Gunderson Raspberry Pi interfacing to web
Ty Pavia illustrator cut files for CNC
Nate Gorgon CNC milling of the frame
Amy Youngs video capture

The Continuous War Train is 3D animation by Ken Rinaldo, which is about the US’s obsession with military power, a central part of our economy.  The dominance of our military-industrial complexes and our violent entertainment film industry are all used to sell and support the recruitment of young boys and girls to believe violence is a solution to political disagreements.

The work starts innocently with a colorful train pulling conventional weapons and new robotic and space arms, moving through a midwestern town. In this film, the screeching of train wheels devolve into the sounds of a woman screaming, machine-gun fire, and babies crying as the never-ending train pulls, Humvees, tanks, jets, rockets, missiles, and future space and robotic military technologies, all in the interest of “defense” and “security.”

The continuous war train elements are interspersed with footage of how companies sell military goods, 3D animation allusions to contemporary film superheroes, historical footage of WWII, and eventually actual war footage of current wars on our planet. The soundtrack underscores the animation and live-action, creating an emotionally charged work.

The train is slowly rumbling through a sleepy Midwestern town, and here the real and the imagined are on parade, as sold by contemporary military companies and bolstered by footage of first-person shooter games. Sadly, shooter games are one primary recruitment tool for worldwide militaries.

In this illusory world, all individuals seem to be THE hero. War is presented in an ironic and often heroic fashion.

Contemporary Hollywood movies create motivation for our children, selling the notion of “the hero” and the power of the military machine. At the same time, suicide still remains the leading cause of war-associated death in the US.

At the train-crossing, where red lights are flashing, cars are backed up on crumbling asphalt, and as the train passes, so do night and day. In the far background are a derelict farmhouse in a wheat field and a second-hand shop on the main street. Given military expenditures, this is now where the middle class can afford to shop for clothing and household goods.

The sounds in this animation are composed of train wheels squeaking and thumping on rusty steel tracks,  conflated with human shrieks, women, and babies crying intermixed with the sounds of war and bombs.

This animation comes about amidst the recent announcement of a new Space Force and is influenced by the American entertainment industry, which is obsessed with violence and war.

Still, the US is not alone, and other countries are also part of this international obsession with developing and using these senseless means of conflict resolution: The numbers below are in billions spent. Sad that the US outspends the next 12 nations combined.

1	United States	602.8
2	People’s Republic of China	150.5
3	Saudi Arabia	76.7
4	Russia	61.2
5	India	52.5
6	United Kingdom	50.7
7	France	48.6
8	Japan	46.0
9	Germany	41.7
10	South Korea	35.7
11	Brazil	29.4
12	Australia	25.0
13	Italy	22.9
14	Israel	21.6
15	Iraq	19.4

This vision of the US and Russia driving arms sales is also sobering and sad.

The superhero genre figures prominently in the American psyche, and war heroes continue to be celebrated.

The manufacture of fear, the American infatuation with military might, and the unbridled worldwide military-industrial complexes continue to divert funds from human-centered social needs, like education, food, environment, and healthcare.

America continues to export a means of violence to other nations through our advanced weapons, all in the name of “security” and “defense.”

In 2015, the United States federal government budget was $3.8 trillion, with $598 billion spent on the military. Here there is an increase in the military of $681.1 billion, about $14,000 for each woman, man, and child living in the United States. The U.S. military budget is higher than the twelve other most massive military budgets in the world combined and more than 54% of U.S. Government discretionary spending. The power conglomerates of the private military and Industrial contractors employ a revolving door. This is not only a republican illness. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on July 14, 2022, paving the way for the defense budget to exceed $800 billion next year, authorizing $37 billion in spending on top of the record $773 billion proposed by President Joe Biden.

Government workers are hired as high-paid board members into these large arms-producing companies, moving directly from government jobs and becoming military lobbyists.

Sadly, this isn’t new, as war is a way of life for most of America. Even if you look only at significant deployments, we have been involved in one war or another for 37 of the last 78 years.

The Pentagon’s numbers show that during 43’s eight years, he averaged 24 bombs dropped daily, which is 8,750 per year. During 44’s presidency, the military dropped 34 bombs per day or 12,500 per year. Under 45’s first year in office, there were an average of 121 bombs dropped per day, for an annual total of 44,096, or one every 12 minutes. Under 46’s rule the bombs have slowed given s withdrawal from Afghanistan.

We are constantly at war, even as we experience a state of relative peace in our hometowns.

As global warming is now considered the primary threat to national and international health and security and food and water will become increasingly scarce, I believe we need to realign our national priorities and stop this Continuous War Train in its tracks.

We can do this by voting and speaking to values of peace and non-violent means of change.

We can only oppose acts of violence with nonviolent means.

About: Special thanks to Emily Subr, who worked as an intern for this project during the summer of 2018 and the Fall of 2018. She worked tirelessly on the scenes for the town and created many test-renders and scenes in this animation, including the scenes where cars are backing up to the lights. She worked doing and animating trains and cameras. Special thanks to TradeMark Gunderson, who collected sound for this project and mixed in the 5.1 sound, as well as helped me select the composers and sound sequences. Special thanks to Danner Seyfer Sprague, who worked on animating trains and cameras and many test renders. Specials thanks to interns Song Chow and Laura Black, who worked getting military goods placed on train cars and textured mapped other vehicles.

Special thanks to the curator Jun-Jieh Wang who commissioned this work for this former Airforce Base, and assistant curator Ye Ren Yu for his fantastic assistance in getting it all complete.

Thanks to curator Maria Campitelli at Salone Delgi Incanti and curator Antonio Cerveira Pinto New Art Festival 18 who brought this work into their exhibitions.

Exhibitions

B3 BIENNALE OF MOVING IMAGE   Frankfurt, Germany, Oct 12-18, 2020
The Truth Exhibition invites The Continuous War Train premiere in Germany, curated by Prof. Bernd Kracke and Anna-Katharina Gerson with support from HfG Offenbach.

SPACE: WILLING N DEALING                                                   Seoul, Korea March 4-April 4, 2020
The continuous War Train animation invited and curated by Minkyung Choi

DA FESTIVAL                                                                                                                  Sophia, Bulgaria,  Oct 2019
The 3D animation; the Continuous War Train. Invited by curator Galina Dimitrova-Dimova

THE URBAN ART SPACE                                                                                               Columbus, Ohio Sept 2019
Faculty of the Department of Art exhibition showing the 3D animation of the Continuous War Train.

SALONE DELGI INCANTI,                                                                                             Trieste, Italy, November 17-28 2018
The European premiere of the Continuous War Train and Pheromone Robot Stories was invited and curated by Maria Campitelli.

MUSEU DE HISTORIA NATURAL E DA CIENCIA                                                          Lisbon, Portugal, November 9-30 2018
The New Art Festival shows the Continuous War Train  curated by ANTÓNIO CERVEIRA PINTO & GUSTAVO ROMANO.

TAIWAN CONTEMPORARY CULTURE LAB,                                                              Taipei, Taiwan, Nov 9 2018-Jan, 27, 2018
Re-Base: When Experiments Become Attitude worldwide premiere of the Continuous War Train invited and commissioned by curator Jun-Jieh Wang

Ken Rinaldo 2018; Concept, 3D modeling, train animation, camera animation, sound, asset acquisitions, rendering, and direction.

Interns and studio Assistants

 Emily Subr; 3D animator, modeler, town staging and modeling, lighting, train rigging, rendering, and nature scenography

 TradeMark Gunderson; 5.1 surround sound engineering, video compositing, editing, and sound.

 Danner Seyffer Sprague 3D modeling, train rigging, and asset management and discovery

Interns:

  Laura Black 3D modeling, and asset management, research

  Song Chow 3D modeling, and asset management, research

Music Samples from:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Requiem in D Minor 626

Henryk Górecki Requiem for a Polka

Krzysztof Penderecki Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima

The present Christiansborg Palace is the last in a series of successive castles and palaces constructed on the site since the construction of the first castle in 1167. Since the fifteenth century, this building has evolved and now serves as the base of the central Danish administration.  Until 1794 it was the principal residence of the Danish kings and, since 1849, has acted as the seat of Parliament, the seat of the Minister’s office, and the Supreme Court of Denmark.

I admire Denmark’s architecture and governance on many levels as an artist. First, from a country such as the US, where many feel our government is unresponsive to the people, I am drawn to this royal palace and how it iconically represents an ideal of a government that sees, provides for, and responds to the people.

The evolution of the palace from the king’s castle/home to the seat of administration and how the various styles of architecture reflect distinct eras of Danish architecture and governance.  Fires and politics have also been central to the formation of its current architectural statement, as the evolution of any management is related to time and, sometimes, chance happenings. The first fire in 1794 and the second in 1884 influenced the castle and its current architecture.

The fires also parallel Denmark’s civil, organizational, and institutional evolution, and as such, the architecture of Christiansborg Palace is a living and evolving structure. The current Palace finished in 1928 in a Neo-Baroque style, is remarkable. The chapel, completed in 1826 in a neoclassical style, also adds to the layers-in-time expression of this work of architecture and Denmark’s political evolution.

The palace is a symbol and a vibrant living structure serving the people.

To an outsider, especially from the US, where income inequality is high, Denmark looks ideal: a country with open education and universal healthcare. As a leader in wind development and a daily bike rider, I admire bikes’ central role in everyday life and follow websites like Cargo Bike Nation;  http://www.copenhagenize.com/2015/10/cargo-bike-nation-copenhagen.html.

While researching and working on this installation, I learned more about my Danish roots. My great-grandmother Mabel and great Grandfather Nils came from Denmark in the 1880s. Their name was Stohl, and changed to Steel at Ellis Island in NY. An uneducated man, he was good with his hands and built the family home in Sparta, Wisconsin supporting his five kids with blacksmithing and handyman jobs.

The family was so poor my grandmother wore clothing made of flour sacks. These sacks were a leftover from the large quantities of flour my great-grandmother used to make bread for the family. My grandmother Lila, perhaps, as a result, was fashion conscious and could hardly wait to leave Sparta for Milwaukee, where she met my grandfather Hugh (Scottish) and where my mother Ann was born.

C / Borg – Parliament of Robots at DIAS Digital Interactive Art Space, invited by chief curator Morten Søndergaard and director of DIAS Rasmus Vestergaard, will consist of interactive robotic sculptures inspired by the culture, nature, and political organization of Denmark and its relation to an evolving global politic of robots and machine vision.

As devices and critical information infrastructures and their algorithms are increasingly used to navigate the constructed and the virtual world, as well as our natural world, questions arise about how they structure our relationships to the biological living systems that support us.

Given their epistemological tendencies to simplify the world with a reductionist code, could robots show sensitivity to natural living systems? How do robots influence and structure ideas about our planet and its future? Do robots and computers amplify or diminish life, and can living systems find a symbiotic intertwining and coevolved coupling within the technological infrastructures that are now part of what appears to be the rapid movement toward autonomous machine replication?

As all life, including code-based computer artificial life, is foundational and dependent on natural living systems, this installation will create hybrids and composite organisms, where machine, nature, and station and its living traveling participants will coexist within an artificial life art ecosystem, integrating computer and natural systems.

These artificial life robots inspired by Christiansborg Palace will hang from the ceiling of the station like the caring fingers of a sea anemone. They will function as Robot Folketing / Parliament of Robots responding to individuals as legislation and governance respond to the people’s will.

The constitution requires equal representation of the various opinions of the electorate.  These robots will also collectively respond to one and many individuals as the metaphor for this extreme example of representational government.  The Danish political system is characterized by a fusion of powers with the government drawn from the ranks of the Folketing.

These fingers will respond when viewers pass. One robot will influence another robot as they are first visually activated with RGB LED colors and motion.

Some of the C / Borg – The Parliament of Robots will be given birth on laser cutters in natural wood and will allow replication of large numbers to fill the station with this living sculpture.  Each robot will be about 40 – centimeters long. They will be placed in the station to be out of the easy reach of passing viewers.

The laser-cut and constructed robotic buildings have Christiansborg Palace as an iconic point of departure and conflate contemporary architectonic forms with a totemic automated form. They further play with potentials afforded in the process of making and sculpting with lasers and code-based replication with the machine’s logic and its nature tends to influence.

Motor and upside-down test to see motor speed and motion.

High brightness RGB led test.

Data / Site / Interaction

Varieties of drawing robots will capture and create drawings resulting from humans walking and interacting with one drawing robot. Another drawing robot will capture the sounds of the train and whistle and translate that into a picture. Outside the station, microphones will capture birds chirping and other natural elements near the station, allowing a third drawing robot to make drawings based on these sounds.

Collecting this original data through the interaction of passing passengers will affect the analog accretive drawing outputs and create semi-organized and chaotic designs.

These will hang on the walls at the main entrance and keep an abstract count of humans, machines, and nature.

Pens with large storage tanks will be used. As the plexiglass and sheets of plywood for this work are sourced in Denmark, and the motor hangers and clips are lightweight, this work travels with low dimensional and physical weight.

Accretion bio and data work that both filters and collects human DNA dust, pollen, bacteria, and all-natural and artificial spores and gasses that flow through the station. The fan will reveal the image over time as the filter will collect the dust only in the pattern of the laser-cut filter material.

I envision these filter sculptures near the parking lot where human and animal cellular dust, pollen, bacteria, fungi, and car particulates will all come together in this composite.  The resulting print that is left will be a kind of passive collaborative collecting of human DNA and other natural particulates along with the signatures of our age, which are trace machine particulates.

The works will leave an imagistic core sample of that time slice in the urban bio/machinic particle mix, revealing the drawing over time.

Danish texts constitutional/poetic

9-15 LED text-based works ascending the stairs will display constitutional text elements: scrolling. Danish philosophies/ current discussions may also be streamed live if feasible.

The works will be encased in diamond plate steel or aluminum, with a reflective quality that will shimmer and have reflectance along the stairs allowing the text to be seen in reverse and shattered by the lensing of the diamond plate.

The effect is relevant to the evolution and cascading of ideas in time, as the words are recreated in these miniature technological lenses. The moving LEDs will also act as beacons and lighting along stairs, opposite the bike ramp on the other side.

Concerns for the placement of these works is the method of cleaning the station. Do they hose down the floor, for example? The boxes can be sealed and watertight.

Messages to travelers

An expandable Lycra Intertwining LUR sculpture will change light based on the arrival and departure of the trains. While the form is inspired by the LUR, they will be placed in the mid-landing of the station. They will also be a signal to viewers signaling with sound/light as trains arrive.

On the windows, the colored film is yellow on the left and pink on the right. Laser-cut plastic mirrored surfaces will be placed along the window to reflect trains and the sky on the lower window sill. The windows will also remember the Intertwining Lur more and less as darkness falls.

Semaphores / Machine Sonification / Emotion

Varieties of semaphore robots are being explored. Potentially hanging from the walls at the entrance or near the stairs landing, these semaphore-inspired works will signal the future of our planet. These will be networked, at times working in synchrony and at times doing individual dances/spinning.

They will have flowing soft elements with printed silk images to capture the robots’ motion and wind through space as the station doors open and close. Patterns of material flowing about stepper activation will be further explored.

The stepper motors also make exciting sounds, and I may use that sound as part of the aesthetic of this portion of the C / Borg – Parliament of Robots.

VR / Where artists invent the future

Since Denmark was the first country I was able to realize a crowdsourced project at Aalborg University with the invitation of chief curator/researcher/professor Morten Søndergaard and artist/professor Laura Beloff, I will also be envisioning a future within the physical station that is a virtual recreation of the station.

However, when you exit the station virtually in this VR work (viewed while sitting on a rococo couch), you will be entering a proposed future scenario of Copenhagen and the planet broadly. Invited artists and futurists will construct and imagine “the future” with virtual rooms. By exiting the virtual station doors, you would, in essence, be entering a kind of collective imagination of the artists. The proposed VR works may be concerned with environmentalism or politicking. However, artists may also show the potential for exploring a creation that may only be accessed through a VR experience.

Once proposed to me and the curator, all 3D assets for the VR would be created by my students who study 3D modeling and then brought into the Unity Game Engine. Students may be able to receive credit for an internship.

This VR work will be viewed from the Queen and King’s lounge, where a rococo couch and nearby joystick allow navigation through the virtual world being displayed on the large flat screen tv set in the place where the mirror of the dresser would be.

The white plastic installation above may blow in the wind as the double doors open and close for trains.

If these kinetic elements are approved and feasible, they will be constructed by artist Dana Lynne Harper. They would enter the exhibition as an invited collaborative work, given the design will be by both Rinaldo and Harper. This proposed element cannot impede line-of-sight emergency signage, which is one primary consideration for this work’s placement and/or approval.

This work would be constructed with wire mesh and fire-resistant plastic tape and would be lite-weight for shipping.

The wallpaper will be fabricated with alternating wind vanes from industrial wind farms and the Mute Swan.

The rococo couch, dresser, and TV will be sourced locally in Denmark.

 Existing couches may be modified using rapid prototyping plastic where ornate elements are needed. 

This proposed VR work will create a national and international dialogue about education and government and the function of artists, researchers, and citizens in creating their ideal world, especially with machines and advanced electronic and mechanical control technologies. Artists and creative folks are generally adept at evolving technologies, especially when unconstrained by market forces. The manifestation of the virtual Copenhagen and virtual will be an exciting adventure of collaboration and visualization.

In this virtual space, we may see the mini fruit fly printers of Laura Beloff and the green worm reprocessing worlds of artist Amy Youngs and sound installations by TradeMark Gunderson.  These elements of the work will allow a genuinely international dialogue between the collective brain trust of Denmark and a planet of thinkers, makers, and terraformers — a discussion about the function of the arts and government in the evolution of contemporary culture and evolving governance.

This element of the exhibition will be subject to how the budget goes.

The Politics of the Machines – Art and After

Chief curator Morten Søndergaard and artist/professor Laura Beloff will be hosting an international conference at the same time as the premiere of this work.

The POLITICS OF THE MACHINES – ART AND AFTER EVA-Copenhagen 2018 will occur concurrently with the opening of C / Borg – The Parliament of Robots.

Living Systems/machine gestures

Several slow-growing, hanging planters fabricated from rapid prototyping processes will host epiphytes (air plants) and local mosses of Denmark; blad Mosser; hepatopsida, anthoceratopsida, spagnopsida, andreaseopsida and electronic monitoring and watering is in research. These may be cast in terra-cotta.

Electronics / sensing / actuation

The works will be robotized with Arduino microcontrollers, XBee and Zigbee networking, motor shields, and Arduino programming. Passive infrared sensors within each robotic palace allow them to be responsive to passing viewers as they move through the station. Motor shields designed for DC gearhead motors and/or stepper motors will be utilized to drive the C / Borg bots.

Power supplies will reside near embedded hanging planters holding epiphytes and mosses of Denmark and bring 12-volt DC (Direct Current) to each robot.

That voltage will also be regulated to 5 volts to supply the Arduino microcontrollers. The robots will be using low power and therefore be energy efficient. As the C / Borg robots will only move when viewers pass through the station, they will otherwise be at rest, adding to their functioning longevity.

Custom-designed and laser-cut Scotch yoke mechanical devices are being developed for fail-safe motor actuation of monofilament pull strings that will run through the robotic palace structures for movement in response to sensor activation.

Four passive infrared sensors placed around each robot will give eight quadrants of sensing and actuation toward human body heat. As most human body heat comes from the head, the sensors are responsive to even the slightest movement.

Software / Behavior / Misbehavior / Mesh Networks

The software is a variant of the subsumption architecture of MIT. It will allow a distributed flocking behavior based on emergent behaviors of the robots reacting to the human presence and reacting and interacting with each other.

They will emerge in this process. Emergence can be described as individual elements emerging into an organic whole through the interactions of localized sensing and actuation behaviors.

All robots will move toward the body heat of humans moving through space. The robots will also respond to each other with a distributed mesh network of sensors and actuators, so the individual robots will form a large a-life robotic organism.

One moving C / Borg bot will cause a cascade of other C / Borg bots to move and respond in like manner, given humans’ proximity to the robots.

Lighting / Visual / Emotional

Lighting will be an essential component both actually and metaphorically. Bright RGB LED boards are placed inside each C / Borg robot allowing constantly changing, flickering colors to project light of varying intensities onto the ceilings and walls of the Vallensbæk Station DIAS.

Public Discussion / Participation / Education

One component will be to provide roadmaps for future makers on how to approach prototyping and building robots. A few may be donated to high schools and colleges around Denmark to experiment with and stimulate a conversation about recyclable materials, critical making, robotics technology, and the future of government.

The discussions would involve conceptualization, sustainability issues, advanced manufacturing techniques, robotic control, and artificial life programming techniques.

Other possibilities are making the robots open source, so others can print them with their laser cutters and 3D printers. The software may also be open source, allowing others to experiment and control what they have created.

Local / International Web Outreach

As part of the installation, a couple of the smaller rooms, like the one on the Vallensbæk train Station platform and the one below in the entrance, could have video projectors and closed-loop cameras showing the installation and also allow people to enjoy the work locally. Locally the camera would be a direct feed of a camera that is focused on a natural part of the surrounding green space of the station, like in the bushes focused on a birds nest, allowing those on the platform to watch and see nature space as a projection map onto the walls. International outreach is may be accessible through the Queen and Kings lounge as well as online educational materials made accessible via the web.

While multiple thanks should go to; the DIAS curatorial board contemporary artist, #MortenSøndergaard (DK), curator, assistant professor – Aalborg Universitet, København, and #RasmusVestaargard Chief curator DIAS, in the end, this project was not realized in the space.

While I had received an invitation and contract to produce the work, began hiring workers, and spent about 7K of my own money, the contract was never signed. After many emails and promises to sign the contract, it was never signed. My emails and calls were not returned, and the chief curator Rasmus Vestaargard subsequently left the position.

This left me in the hole for 7K. Neither Morten Sondergaard nor I could ever understand why the contract and commission were offered and why I was allowed to continue to spend my money with promises, though the contract was not signed.

Since then, I have successfully taken many of the ideas produced in this work to other contexts.

However, artists beware that it is best not to trust that contracts will be signed, and caveat emptor; do not spend your own money on commissions in advance of receiving a fully signed contract. 

DIAS Digital Interactive Art Space
Vallensbæk Station
2665 Vallensbæk Strand

Artist and Director

Ken Rinaldo: Concept, design, and direction as well as 3D modeling, electronics, and fabrication

Artists Contributors

Dana Lynne Harper (Contingent on the placement of work proposed)

Artists in VR world: (proposed)

Ken Rinaldo, Laura Beloff, Amy Youngs, Trademark Gunderson, Riley Patrick, Danner Seyfer Sprague

Studio Assistants:

Trademark Gunderson: Electronics and programming
Danner Seyfer Sprague; 3D modeling VR
Riley Patrick: 3D modeling, VR

Early Visuals.

At times the soundscape consists of granulated machine sound amplifying an anthropogenic moment, and twitching and the speed of the machine/animal voices is like machines speaking their first words or animals expressing in machine tongues.

The critical juncture we have passed of 400 PPM parts per million greenhouse gases CO2 in our atmosphere impacts global weather uncertainty and warming.  Machine-produced CO2 is one of the primary drivers of recent climate change, though others believe methane is more dangerous.

According to data from the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, scientists are now looking at the relationship between the global weather, environment, and the microbes that play a significant role in the worldwide planet weather cycles and global warming. In recent research out of Georgia Tech in measuring our upper atmosphere, they reported: “Viable bacterial cells represented, on average, around 20 percent of the total particles detected in size range of 0.25 to 1 microns in diameter. By at least one order of magnitude, bacteria outnumbered fungi in the samples, and the researchers detected 17 different bacteria taxa—including some capable of metabolizing the carbon compounds ubiquitous in the atmosphere—such as oxalic acid.”

17 % of methane pollution is rumored to come from anthropogenic dumping of green waste that could otherwise be recycled.

This artificial life installation creates a relationship between actual global weather data  (mediated by bacteria, algae, and viruses) and the output’s sonic and video components.

Robots’ textures are mapped with videos of nature/machine culture.  The sonic environment is realized by natural and machine sounds meeting algorithmic processing. Cellular automaton controlling actual video and sonic elements as the work evolves in real-time.

Each work has a unique projection that reveals and abstracts the weather into the body language of the form. Clouds, oceans, and forests in different states of change create texture and behavior and affect the the form.

At times the works will be peaceful, responding to undulating ocean data in the vicinity of the exhibition and other semi-chaotic weather data.

The sonic and sound environment will also be generative and related to the turbulence of global weather using granular synthesis to take existing weather-related sounds and transform them into sonic landscapes.

As a chaotic system, the atmosphere can have minor changes to one part of the system and grow to have significant effects on the overall system. This makes predicting the weather more than a few days in advance difficult, though forecasters are extending this limit through the scientific study of climate and meteorology. It is theoretically impossible to make useful day-to-day predictions more than two weeks ahead, imposing an upper limit on the potential for improved prediction skills.

Shaping the planet Earth

As the weather is a fundamental process that shapes the Earth, breaking down rocks and soils into fragments and their constituent substances. During precipitation, the droplets absorb and dissolve carbon dioxide from the surrounding air. As the rainwater is slightly acidic, this aids the erosive properties of water. The released sediment and chemicals then take part in chemical reactions that affect the surface further (such as acid rain), and sodium and chloride ions (salt) are deposited in the seas/oceans. The sediment reform in time and by geological forces into other rocks and soils. In this way, weather plays a significant role in the erosion of the surface of the planet and the reworking of the earth.

A University of Queensland microbiologist is part of an international team identifying a bacterial gene that may affect climate and weather.

Weather is related to living systems in several ways; it is thermodynamically open as it exchanges energy and/or mass with its environment. It exhibits dynamic behavior that is not at or near equilibrium and undergoing continuous change. It shows nonlinear dynamics where parts and structures emerge from positive and negative feedback loops. Emergence (Crutchfield 1994), the theory of emergence, says the ” whole is greater than the sum of the parts.”

Convection currents, cellular dynamics, + food webs are examples of emergent phenomena related to changes in weather, and these are all symbiotically intertwined with bacterial, algae, and virus cultures.

In thinking of our biology as a species, I like to say we are not individuals though we are clouds of bacterial cultures.

Likewise, I believe we can see weather and the global microbiome as a massively distributed entity, where we now know that marine microbes “are responsible for 99% of the cycling of the world’s gases and nutrients and 50% of the world’s primary productivity. Given the vital role of ocean microbes in maintaining life, getting to grips with the impact of environmental change such as increasing ocean acidity on them is extremely important,” 2

This distributed, cloud-controlled robotic series will pioneer and celebrate this interrelationship.

Construction and milestones

Bald Eagle:

Red Poison Dart Frog:

Puma:

References:

1) Predicting the microbial ‘weather’ April 17, 2012, By Louise Lerner
2) Microbes answer more questions collectively May 26, 2010
3) http://phys.org/news/2013-09-livestock-major-contributor-global.html
4) http://phys.org/news/2010-05-microbes.html#jCp

Design, concept, and construction: Ken Rinaldo
Sound: Ken Rinaldo and Trademark Gunderson
Electronics: Ken Rinaldo
MAX MSP Jitter programming: Trademark Gunderson
Laser cutting: Trademark Gunderson

Special Thanks to Curator Iliana Mendoza de Froese for inviting and funding this new installation work.

A-LIFE 2016,                                                                                                         Cancun, Mexico, Spring/summer 2016
Commission of new work Abiopoiesis Microbiome for the A-Life Conference and exhibition invited by curator Iliana Mendoza Villafuerte and Tom Froese.