Schwärmen + Vernetzen by Hanns Holger Rutz

"Schwärmen + Vernetzen" (swarming and networking) explores the possibilities of transdisciplinary work in art, realising them through forms of "movement profiles", retracing the vacating of individual viewpoints of the participating artists and the emergence of joint forms of movement. The project is a collaboration between writer Gertrude Grossegger, installation arts and trained molecular biologist Nayarí Castillo, and sound artist Hanns Holger Rutz. In order to make novel connections between text, visual elements and sounds possible, the three artists put themselves into an experimental arrangement, topically structured around dynamical systems of swarming and networking, originating from biology; we are interested in systems in which new organisms develop without dissolving their partial structures, individual media, and individual scopes of work. Stages of the project are a series of encounters of the artists, the outcome of each of which is a further development of materials, an intensive retreat over several days, a publication in a literature journal, an exhibition at Akademie Graz, a symposium, and a printed catalog.

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Movement of a bean plant is feedback controlled through blue and white lights as it grows.

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Artificial Life (A-Life) describes a research area, where concepts of life and living organisms are recreated technologically, e.g. using computer simulations, robots etc.

We were excited to find out that the University of Graz hosts an Artificial Life Lab that focuses precisely on swarm behaviour, including artificial bees and artificial fish. Its director Thomas Schmickl will be speaking at the opening of our exhibition about their research. Here are some photos from the lab.

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Artificial Life

Swarm organism that transports hormones to communicate food availability.

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While the bee robots cannot crawl or fly, they have mechanisms to produce vibrations, regulate temperature, and emit light, and thereby communicate with real bees.

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Experiment where real and artificial bees form a coupled system that organises decisions.

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Young bees that will take part in experiments

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Artificial bees (top view)
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Artificial bees (bottom view)

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Robot module that can couple itself to its congeners

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Robots that can can live at the bottom of the sea

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Fish robot

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---
meta: true
project: SchwaermenVernetzen
keywords: [artificial life, artificial intelligence, swarming, simulation, fish, bee]
persons: [Thomas Schmickl]
---

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