An attempt to redefine the way we perceive the parameters of objects through establishing correlations with characteristics of fungal networks — using the dynamic factors that define the mycelium universe.
i call you my kin:
Rebecca Goh (Singapore); Supported by: Aditi Chauhan (India), Akhil Patil (India), & Syahrul Anuar (Singapore)
Mentor: Harshit Agrawal (India)
Concept Note
Humanity has always thought itself to be the heralders of technological advancement. However, uncanny resemblances between patterns that exist in AI and Machine Learning systems, and in the natural world such as flocking, entropy, and fractals, all provoke an interrogation of possible non-humanised modalities in techart.
By immersing ourselves / the audience in raw environmental data through a self-sustaining web model, our project pushes for a narrative that displaces anthropocentric identities. In line with our objectives, our chosen proposal title I call you my kin was a response from the GPT 3 language model to our initial questions – a quote the programme attributes to renowned Native American environmentalist Winona LaDuke.
Instead of interpreting data for our own benefit, we aim to listen – allowing ourselves an understanding beyond words by relinquishing creative agency to technology and nature, and acknowledging our own limitations.
Ultimately, the project is an ongoing celebration of the world as it is, and an emphasis on the relationships we stand to lose due to human inaction. It aims to present a way of living that highlights our ephemeral existence in light of the climate crisis – exploring the ecological kinship often correlated with indigenous cultures and non-human systems, and excavating diverse epistemic values in the process.
INTENDED AUDIENCE: We would of course aim for inclusivity with this prototype (e.g., engaging with D/deaf and disabled communities), and for its intentions to be accessible to as many audience members as possible We are particularly looking to reach out to audience members aged 16 – 50 years (whom we’d assume are familiar / interested in technology, and with digital access), who might be uninterested in the climate urgency / unaware of humanity’s role in exacerbating the current situation. We want to provoke our audiences to challenge our positionalities in climate action movements, and to inspire them to rethink their biases, and to make a difference.
Detailed Description
Through this project we are experimenting with a non-linear, non-binary creative methodology that could be a product / prototype in itself.
We are currently operating within a highly humanised framework, where we are often wired to yield results from our environment for our own use. To subvert this, we intend to focus on the production of an alternative worldview that displaces the rigidities of anthropocentric perception, and understanding of the world. Through our process led by data and AI networks, we will navigate and explore spaces along a non-humanised continuum. We want to provoke feelings of alienation and familiarity by way of drawing parallels between technological and natural paradigms. Through this deconstructive and non-linear flow of information, we hope to facilitate a self-sustaining and interactive interface that serves as a metaphorical methodology. It is less driven by a defined artistic output, and more focused on a slow and evolving process, which reflects our need to augment our habits / mindsets in response to the climate emergency.
How does nature create? The processes of evolution, data entropy and diversification are what we hope to encourage in our experiments. We see metaphoric commonalities between technology and nature: GPU and CPU cores as data streams, ice cores as data repositories (akin to hard disk drives), photographs and trace fossils, and hieroglyphs as implications of presence, fungal networks mirrored in machine learning neural systems as self-adaptive information networks. We want to challenge ourselves with these thought-provoking parallels, and to collaborate with natural data and technology as creative independent agents in their own right.
As we dive deeper into the parallels between AI/ML frameworks and the environment, our starting points would provide impetus to the development of a self-generated and self-designed prototype that is populated by its own structures of understanding, driven by our random datasets. We wonder if technology could recognise similarities in itself and nature. If so, we would be compelled to acknowledge our symbiotic intersections with technology and nature a lot more – an existential reminder that we are but a small cog in a larger machine.
Non-digital manifestations of this collaborative artefact are entirely possible as well. Some of our long-term goals include constructing site-responsive multimedia exhibitions (bringing this data-driven process to audiences / the external world in a more tactile way), and initiatives on the ground – working with farmers, forest land caretakers, and indigenous advocates in our respective geographies to establish direct connections to biocentric paradigms. We are looking forward to taking the prototype further in both online and analogue spaces.
Bibliography, References and Tech Stack
https://openresearch.amsterdam/en/page/71247/artificial-intelligence-taking-inspiration-from-nature
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/22/children-natural-world-protect-earth
Cizek, K., Uricchio, W., & Wolozin, S. (2019). PART 6: MEDIA CO-CREATION WITH NON-HUMAN SYSTEMS. In Collective Wisdom (1st ed.). https://doi.org/10.21428/ba67f642.f7c1b7e5
Salmón, E. (2000). Kincentric Ecology: Indigenous Perceptions of the Human-Nature Relationship. Ecological Applications, 10(5), 1327–1332. https://doi.org/10.2307/2641288
TSING, A (2010). Arts of Inclusion, or How to Love a Mushroom in Mānoa, Vol. 22, No. 2, Wild Hearts: Literature, Ecology, and Inclusion , pp. 191-203
#SCORE #MACHINELEARNING #ARTIFICIALINTELLIGENCE #BIOCENTRISM #VISUALDATA #ANTHROPOCENE