By morning, soldiers from both sides cautiously emerged from their trenches. They exchanged rations, photographs of loved ones, and even played impromptu games of football in the icy mud. The spontaneous truce—unofficial, uncommanded, and profoundly human—stood as a flickering beacon of peace in a world torn apart. Though the gunfire returned soon after, the Christmas Truce became legend: a testament to the power of song, shared spirit, and fleeting human connection to bridge even the deepest divides. Now, nearly a century later, science offers a new kind of song—written not in music, but in DNA.

In the near future, genetically engineered mosquito biovectors, carrying CRISPR-Cas9 systems and finely tuned RNA payloads, deliver precise genetic instructions to humans during a simple blood meal. The viral vector slips into the bloodstream, crosses into the brain, and edits molecular pathways that govern aggression. Slowly, a soldier’s violent reflexes begin to soften. The neural circuits, once primed for rage, now hum with balance and restraint. The evolution of compassion shifts from a slow social process to an immediate molecular transformation. Will these more peaceful genes be passed from the male to his and her offspring? That is the hope and purpose.

This idea makes me think of Dr. Robert Sapolsky and his research about aggression in baboon troops. In this research alpha males died and the troop transformes into a peaceful troop. Since then, a peaceful approach has become a cultural norm for these baboons. This is now a norm continuing for 20 years and now transforms other aberrant baboons that may wander into the troop.

This vision draws on real advances already reshaping the natural world. Scientists have created mosquitoes with gene drives—genetic systems that bias inheritance—to crash their own populations and curb diseases like malaria. CRISPR-based edits can render female mosquitoes sterile or skew sex ratios toward non-reproductive males. Released into the wild, these traits spread with startling speed, passing to nearly all offspring and driving populations toward collapse in just a few generations.

The same precision that reengineers nature’s most persistent killer could, in theory, be turned toward humanity’s most persistent instinct for violence—rewriting our biology to make war itself obsolete.

Here is a scientifically grounded outline of how a CRISPR-based behavioral modification gene drive could work.

CRISPR-Based Behavioral Modulation via Mosquito Biovectors

1. Vector Choice: Engineered Mosquitoes

• Genetically modified Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are used as delivery systems.
• These mosquitoes are engineered to carry a viral payload in their saliva glands, which is released during a blood meal.

2. Viral Payload: AAV or Lentivirus

• The virus must be:
  • Tissue-targeted to affect the brain, ideally crossing the blood-brain barrier.
  • Engineered with a CRISPR-Cas system guided by synthetic single guide RNAs (sgRNAs) to target genes related to aggression regulation in humans.
• Candidates for the viral vector:
  • Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV9) – known to cross the blood-brain barrier.
  • Lentivirus – for more permanent DNA integration.
    
    

3. Target Genes

• Potential human gene targets include:
  • MAOA (monoamine oxidase A): Linked to aggression when mutated or under-expressed.
  • SLC6A4 (serotonin transporter gene): Involved in serotonin reuptake and emotional regulation.
  • BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor): Associated with neural plasticity and mood.

4. CRISPR Mechanism

• The virus introduces the Cas9 enzyme and sgRNA into the target cells in the amygdala or prefrontal cortex.
• Cas9 makes a precise cut in the DNA of target genes.
• The edit may:
  • Silence overactive genes related to violence.
  • Upregulate genes that support empathy and prosocial behavior (via promoter edits or exon activation).
• The edits are permanent if integrated using homology-directed repair (HDR), or transient if done using RNA base editing (e.g., via Cas13).

5. Safety Controls

• To prevent off-target effects or misuse:
  • A “kill switch” CRISPR failsafe.
  • Restricted gene drives (only affecting local populations, not global spread).
  • Tunable promoters to limit expression strength.

Research: CRISPR & Gene Drives in Mosquitoes

• Hammond et al. (2016) — A CRISPR-Cas9 gene drive system targeting female reproduction in Anopheles gambiae. Nature Biotechnology.
• Kyrou et al. (2018) — A CRISPR–Cas9 gene drive targeting doublesex causes complete population suppression in caged Anopheles gambiae. Nature Biotechnology.
• Gantz et al. (2015) — Highly efficient Cas9-mediated gene drive in Drosophila. PNAS.
• Esvelt et al. (2014) — RNA-guided gene drives for altering wild populations. eLife.
• Burt (2003) — Site-specific selfish genes as tools for control of natural populations. Proc. Royal Society B.
• Galizi et al. (2014) — Synthetic sex-ratio distortion for controlling the human malaria mosquito. Nature Communications.
• Simoni et al. (2020) — A male-biasing sex-distorter gene drive in the human malaria mosquito. Nature Communications.
• Carballar-Lejarazu & James (2017) — Population modification of anopheline mosquitoes for malaria control. PLOS Genetics.
• Hammond et al. (2017) — The creation and selection of mutations resistant to a gene drive in malaria mosquitoes. PLOS Genetics.
• Eckhoff et al. (2017) — Impact of mosquito gene drive on malaria elimination: modeling study. PLOS Computational Biology.
• https://www.media.mit.edu/articles/crispr-gene-drives-and-the-future-of-evolution/https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/a-new-crispr-driven-technology-for-gene-drive-in-plants

Artists, Works, and Curators (CRISPR / Bio-Art)

• Emilia Tikka — Eudaimonia (2018): speculative design/art exploring CRISPR’s impact on emotion and identity.
• Ars Electronica Project page and jury texts contextualizing CRISPR-related speculative art.
• Anna Dumitriu — Make Do and Mend (CRISPR gene-editing explored through textiles and storytelling).
• Jens Hauser — Curator/researcher; essays and exhibitions on bio-art and new biotechnologies
• William Myers — Biodesign (book/exhibitions; curatorial writing on design with living systems and gene editing).
• V&A Museum Biodesign Collection — Institutional context for design with biology (includes CRISPR era design debates).
• Ars Electronica Center — CRISPR exhibition materials and public engagement resources.
• Heather Dewey-Hagborg — While not strictly CRISPR, her DNA-centric works are key in the genetic-art discourse.
• SymbioticA (Oron Catts & Ionat Zurr) — Art-science lab/platform shaping the bio-art field; frequent CRISPR-adjacent discourse.
• Science Gallery — Curated exhibitions on biotech and society; multiple shows including CRISPR-focused programming and talks.
• https://innovativegenomics.org/news/visualizing-crispr-through-art/

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

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.

Tepoztlán, Mexico, is known for agriculture, significantly growing corn (Maize), chili and tomatoes, livestock, and the weekend markets or Tianguis. At the same time, DNA modifications are used on livestock to create artificial spare parts for humans. Corn is under siege with genetically modified varieties, pushing its way into traditional agricultural processes. 

Through artificial intelligence remixes of culture, this series captures these complex times and how a town maintains its traditions, livestock, and agriculture tuned to the environment through generations of farmers while genetic modifications surge elsewhere. 

These artworks are collaborations between the artist and computer algorithms, and they are originals supported with actual DNA to confirm their originality. Creating these algorithmic artworks uses style transfer and language keys to access massive databases online before the artist creates and manipulates these images in real-time after the renders are complete.

In the current craze of NFTs, Non Fungible Tokens confirm the originality of the work; I have chosen to go with a bit of my hair (DNA) and a traditional signature on the back of each piece to verify their authenticity. Therefore, they are DNA Fungible Tokens, and PCR (Polymerase Chase Reactions) can be used to confirm their originality, which is the greenest solution I know.

The City of Indigenous Corn 2020 is an artificial intelligence abstraction referring to the conflation of the remains of the El Tepozteco temple built on top of the nearby Tepozteco mountain and the colorful corn one finds in the region. Rich copper tones in the work reference copper mining in the area.

CRISPR Cas9 Proteins Amino Acids 2020 is an artificial intelligence abstraction referring to the most recent methods of modifying animals and traditional crops. The works clouds speak to the colorful and often dramatic changes afoot.

Flying Cows Birds Jellyfish 2020 is an artificial intelligence abstraction referring to genetic remixing to create new hybrid beings. Fluorescent proteins are often used in the genetic process to identify and manipulate the genes, and flying cows illustrate this moment of new beings arising with floating pink clouds.

Great White Heron Insects Jellyfish Springtails 2020 is an artificial intelligence abstraction suggesting the possible historical basis of the Mesoamerican god Quetzalcoatl and the feathered serpent god worshiped in ancient Mexico.

Great White Heron Tepoztlán three Boxes 2020 is an artificial intelligence abstraction referring to the myth of Tepoztón about a laundress who works in Tenochtitlan. As a form of payment for some work hanging a bell in a church, he receives boxes and is instructed not to open them. However, his curiosity gets the best of him, and he opens and lets the birds out, and they become a symbol of the riches and well-being of the people of Tepoztlán. The Great Egret, Heron Ardea alba, is one of four subspecies of the Great Egret, the only one found in Mexico. It is large and elegant with dazzling white plumage, long black legs, and a long neck with a yellow bill.

Xeno transplantation Pink Cow Udder 2020 is an artificial intelligence abstraction referring to the genetic modification of cows to be more productive. This image has cows hooked to machines and becomes something other than a cow and, in the process, points to the purity and integrity of natural agricultural methods. The work also refers to recent experiments in humans’ breeding animals for Xeno Transplantation.

Land of Indigenous Maise 2020 refers to the rolling hills and agriculture of Tepoztlan and the colorful corn one finds in the region. Rich

copper skies in the work reference the copper oar mined in the area

Genetically Modified Cows 2020 is an artificial intelligence abstraction referring to cows modified to be more productive for milk and

agriculture with green pastures below. These are cows coming out of the fog

Exhibitions

GALERIA CASAS RAYUELA                                                            San Cristobal de Las Casas, Mexico Feb – March 2021
Futurors Impermanentes, Exhibition de Arte NFT en Movimiento curator Axel Cuevas Santamaria

CASAHUILO ART GALLERY                   Tepoztlán, Mexico, Feb 19th, 2022
World-Wide-Premiere of the eight new artificial intelligence and hand-worked pieces focused on the agriculture of Mexico and The Legend of Tepozteco, as well as the ethics of xenotransplantation. + A new Fungible DNA token will be used on each work, contrary to NFTs. Curated by Axel Cuevas Santamaria

This project aims to create artificial seed pods that will be distributed by both planes and waterfowl into the permafrost and frozen tundra to allow the future reseeding of forests and fields. CRISPR and  X-ray or chemical mutagenic methods will be used to mutate the seeds before they are placed in the pods.

While this work seems hopeful and can function as a kind of technical augmentation, sadly, it also acknowledges this may become necessary as a means of reseeding the earth given our burning of fossil fuels and the global warming that is the result. Tragically, according to the IPCC report, between 20 to 30% of plant and animal species face extinction by the end of the century.

As pollen and seeds are reproductive adaptations, they did not appear in plants until millions of years after seedless plants had already begun to live on land. These CRISPR seeds will be techno-augmented to sprout in the distant future, genetically modified to allow them to survive where global warming has harmed plants, unable to adapt quickly enough to our increasing C02 in the atmosphere.

While most plant species reproduce with seeds, many species of seedless plants have become extinct, although seeds can also resurrect plants long thought to be extinct.

The durability of seeds is known to depend critically on how they are stored and if you keep them in cold, dry conditions. In 2006 a story from Israel had scientists grow a date palm from a 2,000-year-old seed found during an archeological excavation on Mount Masada. The date palm seed was verified by radiocarbon dating. The seeds in these containers will be well dried and kept in airtight containment to last the longest possible time. In 2010 a Russian team found a seed cache of Silene stenophylla at 124 feet (38 meters) below the permafrost. Stenophylla is a flowering plant native to Siberia that an ice age squirrel had buried near the banks of the Kolyma River. Radiocarbon dating confirmed that the seeds were 32,000 years old.

Both examples demonstrate that, given the right conditions, seeds can remain viable for tens of thousands of years. The article cited that permafrost could be a “depository for an ancient gene pool,” a place where any number of now-extinct species could be found and resurrected.

A mallard duck floating on a lake eats transgenic seeds that emerged 10,000 years ago. Most glaciers have now melted, and The duck is seen eating the seeds in a melting lake.  Above that image is a series of smaller square images in a film sequence inspired by the notion of the “cinematic metaverse” and scientific research, showing an airplane distributing seeds on glaciers before they completely melt; in between smaller images of DNA being identified, visualized, and modified through CRISPR Cas9.

In the lower right-hand corner of this work are a beaker mixing miniature human figures, DNA, car parts, garbage cans, and bacteria together in a vortex action. This automatically activates when a passive infrared sensor sees a human nearby. It remains for some time and implies that humans are the next soup ingredient that CRISPR will modify. It is already beginning with restoring vision in formerly blind humans by altering their DNA. Formally and behaviorally, the water vortex in the beaker, mimics a tornado form, demonstrating the characteristics of the second law of thermodynamics, and the ultimate emergence of life with non-equilibrium thermodynamics – we find in all living systems. This tornado form also references global warming, taking the miniature humans up into its vortex spinning erratically.

An essential part of this work is sound. A sonic remix of polyphonic sounds from Portugal was used, including the polyphonic Choral Music of Duarte Lobo (Evora Portugal was where polyphonic music originated in Portugal), along with Fado remixes, including a rap poem about the tragedies of the loss of biological diversity in plants and their seeds.

Reseeding field and Forrest
planes fly to frozen lakes
10,000 years is a long time
The HONSU gene creates

We use evolution
to change evolution
CRISPR CRISPR bloom CRISPR
CRISPR boom shine

On the plexiglass shelf in the middle is an actual rapid-prototyped seed shell.  Inside are seeds that are currently not CRISPR modified though, may in the future be modified at the Arabidopsis Research center at The Ohio State University. The unmodified seeds may in future include soil and bacterial cultures used to enhance the long-term viability of the seeds though for demo purposes any CRISPR modified seed would be difficult to travel internationally unless under strict control.

To the left of that seed is a living variety of plants in a glass beaker, showing the splendor of our current natural world and some which may be lost.

Why a duck in the main scene? In 2018 a study in the Journal of Ecology reported that Mallards pick up seeds while feeding in the water and on land. In an endozoochory process,’ some of these seeds are not digested and survive gut passage intact, allowing them to sprout after passage. It is now realized that Mallards and other waterfowl are significant vectors for moving seeds from lakes to lakes.

In this project, some seeds will be designed for dispersal by water foul with nutritious special coatings that will be developed based on the nature of seeds and how they can naturally withstand the digestive systems of birds.

Other seeds will be placed in wood/plant seed pods specially designed to open at intervals of 1,000, 2,000, 3,000, and 10,000 years. Rapid prototyped seeds constructed of wood plant materials will degrade. They will allow these pods to dissolve once exposed to the atmosphere as global warming continues to melt glaciers and permafrost.

In some cases, airplanes will fly these seed pods to a height that will allow them to fall to the ground and melt into the glacial ice and permafrost.  As they fall, heat generated during their fall with the fins will enable them to melt into the snow and glaciers.

As the snow and glaciers melt, wood-based or PLA filament with bio based additives made from natural resources may function as the Cotyledon of the seeds to provide nutrients to the budding seeds. I am thinking of using filaments made from mussel shells, oysters, scallops, scraps of wheat, spent beer, and coffee grounds as additives.

In some plants, the Cotyledon contains high quantities of starch and can provide a source of food for the developing embryo before germination. At this stage, I am unsure if the PLA will break down in UV light to allow the seeds to regard this as starch.

Still, these will degrade and enable pods with CRISPR Cas9 & Cas12 seeds and pollen within to propagate new plants and start to repair the atmosphere with fresh oxygen being produced.

Problems with PLA or polylactic acid? PLA is a thermoplastic polyester with the chemical formula (C₃H₄O₂)_n. While it is oversold as a bio-based biodegradable biopolymer made from both the fermentation of renewable and natural plant materials, such as cassava, corn, and sugarcane, it is not so biodegradable. It will last in the environment for about five years before breaking apart. Some have algae that will break apart in about six months when exposed to direct UV light.

Given that no seed or plants bud in “pure isolation” though they are often surrounded by other plant seeds, complex soils, and bacterial cultures, I am also looking at many kinds of plant seeds in the artificial seed pods for both the CRISPR aspect of this project and the X-ray or chemical mutagenic methods used.

For one part of this project, I am focused on Arabidopsis, given the Arabidopsis plant has been entirely genetically sequenced and, therefore, can be manipulated using CRISPR.

Exhibitions

MUSEO EXTREMENO E IBEROAMERICANO DE ARTE CONTEMPORANIO Badajoz, Spain, May 18 -SEPT 2022
Alter(action)  Spanish premiere of CRISPR Seed Resurrection curated and commissioned by Marta de Menezes

EUGENIO DE ALMEIDA FOUNDATION                         Évora, Portugal, 10-May-Oct 2021
Alter(action) commissions CRISPR Seed Resurrection by Ken Rinaldo and curated by Marta De Menezes.

Created by
Ken Rinaldo; Concept, research, 3D modeling, electronics, fabrication, Arduino programming, sound and song composition.

Collections

Cultivamos Cultura, Lisbon Portugal.  1 of an edition of 3

Emergent Systems Team:

TradeMark Gunderson: Sound remixing and mashups, voice in song, Arduino programming.

Dr. Lam Yun Wah, Science advisor. CRISPR CAS9 and CAS12 bioprocesses and collaborative brainstorming.

Danner Seyfer Sprague; 3D modeling, lighting & rendering

Julian Robbins; rapid prototyping using a Crealty CR-6 SE and Anycubic Photon printers

Bruno Caragol: Frame Construction: Lisbon Portugal

Printing: McAlister Photo in Columbus Ohio

Virtual to Real Seeds: Dreams of Spring use nature as a model for designing phantasmagorical seeds. Imaginative artificial 3-D modeled seeds look at the evolved wisdom of plants and their ability to propagate by exploiting wind, water, and animal fur, to spread their genes.

One method is sheer numbers. Plants can produce hundreds or thousands of seeds and one example mis the acacia tree in Africa which can produce 6000 pods each with 8-16 seeds. Another is longevity and the ability of the seed to last for long periods underground, waiting for water and sunshine to flourish.

Looking at the co-evolved strategies in how seeds have developed capabilities to hold onto fur and feathers and the abilities of seeds to utilize animals’ digestive systems to break down their Testa coatings excites me. We see in the seed the insects and animals that have shaped that plant and seed strategies. In an age of CRISPR this series explores the virtual reproductions of CRISPR based manipulations where hybrids that could only exist virtually can now exist in real life where genes from insects and animals can be placed in plants.

I came to more thoroughly appreciate a co-evolved coupling between flower, plant, seeds, and natural forces intertwining with the evolutionary pressures the seed is undergoing.

 In my project, I imagined what artificial seeds might look like, given the new selective pressures technology and industry create on plants’ survival. How might CRISPR be used to create these new hybrids?

If we are going to kill off the bee co-evolved with flowering plants, by spraying plants with neonicotinoids, thus killing the natural pollinators, perhaps we need a transgenic seed and bee to exist; all in one?

This gave rise to these phantasmagorical seeds, which I hope will restructure and help viewers to appreciate the impacts we are having on natural species of plants and animals.

A recent study by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and Stockholm University, The study confirmed 571 plant species extinctions in the last two and a half centuries. This was calculated after one of the study authors, Kew scientist Rafaël Govaerts. He found plant extinctions show four times more extinctions than the current listing of plants believed to be extinct. This number is twice that of mammals, birds, and amphibians recorded as extinct (a combined total of 217 species).

When studying the life of any being, there is always this realization that all life forms are more complex and intertwined than the narratives we wish to tell about them, with either science or art. However, while science holds facts, we can hope to connect with the emotional side of things to spur environmental action with art.

Seeds are the plant’s future; these works exist as models of future flowers, possibly transgenic, yet to exist.  They are printed as Giclee prints produced at the Centro Portuguese de Serigraphia in October 2013.

They are produced through research and study on the morphology of seeds and overall plant strategies.

The incredible variety of plant forms and the intriguing strategies they have come to utilize in spreading their genes are fascinating. As plants are rooted in the ground and cannot travel to spread their genes, the seeds are an essential evolutionary strategy for propagation. They are the most precious of developments, as they carry the next generation.

In researching seeds and reading widely, I think The Bizarre and Incredible World of Plants captures it perfectly with:

The seedings would have to compete for space, light, water, and nutrients with the parent plant and their siblings, and they would probably also encounter other unfavorable conditions and hazards such as predators and diseases, possibly already attracted by the parent plant. Traveling allows them to colonize new sites, thus expanding the range of the species.

In the end, the survival of not only the individual but the entire species depends on the seed reaching a suitable place of germination and establishment. Once ripe, the fruit has to somehow fulfill its biological function, which is the dispersal of the seeds. The crucial role fruits and seeds play in a plant’s life explain the variety of dispersal strategies that plants have developed during evolution. The system for dispersal – weather involving wind, water, animals, and humans or an explosive force from the plant itself is reflected in a seemingly endless plethora of different colors, sizes, and shapes.

The works within this exhibition are conflations of animal form, natural lessons, and methods that would carry the potential seed rendered in a hyper-realistic transgenic fashion. Bee seed has the hairs of the bee leg imagined with the coloring of the bee.

Other works suggest seeds intermingling with the formal aspects of the human form. As an artist, I am interested in seeds as a strategy – I am obsessed with the idea; that technology is also a seed.

It is a seed of knowledge, idea, and behavior actualized and sometimes propagated in culture.

While it would be easy to look at all the negative technologies that have impacted our futures and who we are becoming, as an artist, I have chosen to focus my energies on creating real-world solutions that plant ideas and real solutions to the future.

PURCHASE

krinaldo@hotmail.com

https://www.cps.pt/