The [ECO]Nomic Revolution: When Microbiological Logic Determines Everything

Symposium:

• ISEA2018: 24th International Symposium on Electronic Art
• More presentations from ISEA2018:  

• The [ECO]Nomic Revolution: When Microbiological Logic Determines Everything

• Cesar Baio
• Lois Solomon

Venue(s):

• DUT City Campus Arthur Smith Hall, Durban, South Africa

• ISEA 2018

  [ECO]nomy. This is a rejection of the one-directional sovereignty of globalized humanity over nature, with adverse environmental conditions as the byproduct of profit-driven decisions. The [ECO]Nomic Revolution shifts the logic of economic decisions from individualized choice to reflect the logic of nature on a microbiological level. The installation documents the artists’ scientific and socioeconomic experimentation as they reflect on how values are assigned. The  artists encode economic indicators and area demographics into the microbiological terrain overlaid on a map of Durban.

  As the microorganism, Physarum polycephalum, charts the territory with its own growth algorithm, Cesar & Lois reference the growth dynamics of this nature-based culture to ponder a city’s dynamics. Cesar & Lois respond to the algorithmic growth of the organism with a log of observations, interspersed with community members’ reflections on societal dynamics and growth. By referencing nature’s networking and the organism’s system of sharing resources, alternative logic models for growth may emerge. By  reorienting the logic of a city to the smallest entities within nature, the project hierarchizes the biological culture’s logic over human design.

Category:

• Artist Talk