“Grene Epiphytes, an Immersive Bio Artificial-Life Artwork” presented by Gromala and Tong

Symposium:

• ISEA2015: 21st International Symposium on Electronic Art
• More presentations from ISEA2015:  

• Bio-Art

• Grene Epiphytes, an Immersive Bio Artificial-Life Artwork

• Diane Gromala
• Xin Tong

•  (Long paper)

  Keywords: Biomimetic, Performative Materials, Synthetic Aesthetic Immersive Artwork, Algae, Bio Inspired, living and non-living.

  In the last two decades, emerging fields alternately termed Synthetic Biology, Artificial-Life Art, Bio-inspired Design and Smart Materials, to name a few, have acted as loci that spawned new methods for creating novel artworks based on phenomena that is generally described as “natural”. At the same time, there has been increasing interest and research in creating differing kinds of immersive environments, responsive architectures and inhabitable worlds. Grene Epiphytes is an artwork that grew from an exploration of bio-inspired theories and a rethinking of engaging and immersive inhabitable aesthetics. It offers a perspective grounded in the lineages of immersive artworks and aesthetics that engage participants (not with representations of other life-forms, but) with non-human life-forms, and question the distinctions of human and nature. In this paper, we articulate assumptions and theoretical constructs that inspire our approaches for creating and “engineering” this artwork, and address some of the challenges. Rather than creating nature-like experience where humans are assumed to be at a remove, rather than part of nature, the inhabitable environment presented here is focused on a context enlivened by human and non-human entities, their varied responses to each other and to aspects of their intertwined worlds, as well as a questioning of materials

• Full text (PDF) p. 392-397

Category:

• Paper