zoe – questions of more-than-human collaborations
by Noor Stenfert Kroese and Amir Bastan
The pandemic and current natural disasters have highlighted once again that we need to start living in co-existence and symbiosis with natural landscapes rather than dominating or exploiting them, as is common in many Western societies. What impacts nature also impacts us humans. The rapid intensification and development of both scientific and technological progress are shaping our world at an unprecedented speed. Our time asks us to re-relate to each other and the others we share our space with. "The human" can no longer be seen as the centre but as part of a comprehensive and complex system. This system comprises humans, animals, plants, fungi, microorganisms, and matter and data.
In my practice, I question what it means and what it takes to work from a critical posthumanist stance and how to create encounters between humans and non-humans, experienced as an embodied immersion in the other's zone through sensing technologies.
The theoretical field of posthuman studies does not consist of discrete and neatly delineated areas. Like the worldview they represent, the theories and authors are woven into a rhizomatic network. No thinker belongs to a theory view, and no theory belongs to a single thinker. The abundance of theoretical expressions within posthumanism makes it necessary to delineate some reference points. Their new schemes of thought address the relationship between contemporary concepts of human/non-human interactions and real-life conditions. These theories have a similar focus on relational ontologies, a critique of dualisms, and a focus on encounters with non-humans and matter. They focus on the convergence of body and mind, human and non-human, matter and meaning, nature and culture.
Posthumanism generally assumes an equal relationship with the non-human. Critical posthumanism further questions the complications of this and the extent to which the proposed relationships do not still primarily serve the human. It is critical on posthumanism, where humankind is so much a part of the whole that humans become sidelined. As a result, no action can really be expected from us anymore. Whereby no responsibility is taken for our actions either.
I am finding my way through these philosophies and methodologies with my practice. I am curious whether they naturally appeared in the process and if it is possible to track them down.
In 2022, I made the first step into the possibilities of biocomputing and more than human interaction with robotics through the work 'ZOE'.
ZOE' is a temporary co-existence between the reishi mushrooms and a custom-made robotic system. With Amir Bastan, I started to explore with 'ZOE' the possibilities of internal communication between its robotic system and Reishi. Within this seeming paradox between nature and technology, an ecosystem occurs that cares for and affects each other through sensing technologies. Without claiming that we know what nature wants or needs. 'ZOE' creates a possibility of unknowns coming together.
ZOE exists out of one big cube in the centre of the space of 150x150x250cm. This cube is the living environment for the reishi mushroom and the custom-made robotic system. This environment has a temperature of 24-28 °C, humidity above 85%, and the CO₂ has to be higher than 8500 ppm—a relatively stable and optimal situation for reishi antler growth.
The reishi mushrooms are in 16 separate glass cubes of 30x30x35cm. ZOE collects data through sensors in the environment and the mycelium of the Reishi. ZOE also collects data through observation with a camera. ZOE uses this data to create an internal communication between the Reishi and the robotic system. The data are also used in the space to sensory experience the activity in ZOE.
In some of the versions of ZOE, there is a tufting frame on each corner. These frames are used as projection screens for data visualisations, live streams from the camera on the robotic arm, and to tuft the data carpets.
One can see on the tufting frame with the data visualisations—the visualisation of the robotic arm KUKA LBR IIWA and tiles representing the smaller cubes with Reishi. The visualisation of IIWA is in real-time and shows its position. The tiles visualise the data from the comparison of the pictures that are taken every half hour. If a cube has a high growth rate, it turns green and floats higher. If there is a low amount of growth, it turns red and stays lower. This visualisation represents the decision-making to which cube the robotic system gives extra attention.
Next to this visualisation is the data we are getting from the Reishi in relation to their environment. Each ring is connected to one stream of the data: Reishi activity a and b, humidity, temperature and CO₂. Each ring gets distorted in ratio to the incoming stream of data. Each stream creates an event and the frequency of the events determines the distortion.
Each data coming in is also visualised individually. These read tiles are the data converted to pixels. Each tile is a single channel texture with ten by ten pixels that change their position and colour depending on the incoming amount of data. Each pixel relates to the amount it is changed. For example, the lower the temperature, the darker the pixel gets. The higher the temperature, the brighter red it becomes. Each tile represents the data coming out of ZOE in real time.
ZOE at the Ars Electronica 2023
All the data is collected on a daily base as input for the data-carpet visualisations. These data-carpet visualisations work the same as the real-time visualisation of the reishi activity in relation to their environment. These are projected on the tufting frames and we tuft carpets from them during the exhibition of ZOE. The colours of fungi and moulds inspire the colours of the carpet. This makes ZOE in a constant flux; the space around ZOE changes with the carpets that are added to the environment.
'ZOE' creates a space of sensory data visualisations in this way. It opens up a way to relate to the unknown fungi communication. 'ZOE' continues the research of the interaction within fungal mycelia networks. Scientists discovered that fungi transmit information through their network using electrical impulses. To this day, they do not know what this communication entails. This underground network of fungal connections exchanges back and forth between fungi and one plant and neighbouring plants, using fungi as a thoroughfare. As the fungal threads spread, they can link to multiple plants, creating webs known as 'common mycorrhizal networks'. Through these networks, plants and fungi can exchange sugars, nutrients, water and more. These shared mycorrhizal networks embody ecology's most basic principle: the relationship between organisms. Experiencing the complexity of the mycorrhizal network with its subtle blend of cooperation and conflict can be seen as a metaphor for how we relate with each other and our social systems. Like human society, this society is characterised by variety, with its capacity to help, hinder, cooperate, and exploit.
We aim to bridge the abstraction of the data into the experience of the story they can tell. Using these data gives a better insight into "the entanglement of the apparatuses of production". A process of emergent data collection emerges through lived experiences of collecting and trying out these sensors and technologies. It provides progressive insights into the data collected and how it can be interpreted and used as material. This can be seen as a diffractive approach to engaging with data. It focuses on engaging and attending to differences instead of expecting data to reflect reality in a straightforward, representational way Engaging with the different factors we are working with, namely the fungi, technologies and humans, these processes are slow, and all have different rhythms.
The data gathered as material to bridge between humans and non-humans is a process I can not predefine. It asks one to protect the process to avoid slipping into efficiency.
Engaging with data diffractively throughout the process led to recognising the different agential cuts created between the ongoing phenomenon of reishi activity and the data collected by the sensing technologies. This helped move away from simply representing Reishi's activity. Instead, it engages the phenomena of reishi activity in the mycelium, their growth and environmental conditions while staying with the differences of the Reishi. It constantly asks to be aware of the other, human and non-human. Braidotti describes the transformation to the critical posthuman as "neither linear nor one-directional but is rather a multi-faceted experimentation with what 'we' are capable of becoming"
The work's title is inspired by philosopher Rosi Braidotti . Simplified, she suggests replacing the idea of life understood as 'bios'—human life with 'Zoe'—all forms of life. This questions us about repositioning our way of taking part in this world. Instead, from the perspective of us humans being on the outside looking to the rest as if we are not part of it, zoe places everything, including us, in relation to the others as being part of it. For zoe to happen, we must search for a new 'we'. Braidotti is looking for a new collective subject in this new 'we', and calls this "'we-are-(all)-in-this-together-but-we-are-not-one-and-the-same' kind of subject".
This new collective subject raises many questions about creating a new 'we'. What am I in 'we'? What are the others in 'we'? How do we define each other when we do not think linearly or in binaries? Is that even possible? What kind of new 'we' do we experience when it is not about us? Can humans give space to non-human entities to claim a part of the new 'we'? What does it mean to care for the other? How can we be different and one at the same time? So many questions need the space to be experimented on, experienced with and elaborated on.
ZOE is an experiment to find ways of living together while being different. Embracing the differences and working from these different qualities of those involved is a proposal to redefine our own society and the way we live together on our planet. ZOE is mainly an interactive work between two non-humans (the robotic system and the Reishi) while also creating a space for humans to be part of a place that is not about them. One of ZOE's core principles is that of care. The work revolves around the care of the robotic system for the needs of the Reishi indicated by the Reishi. This also feeds the robotic system a purpose.
In the process, I noticed that the practice of care and responsibility is essential. It matters to care for yourself and the other to be together. It matters how one takes responsibility for the process, the species one is working with, the technology, the space, the time, the material and immaterial, and the humans one works with and are visiting the work. It all requires respectful care and attention to their capabilities and needs. It is through them and their intra-actions that these encounters can exist.
The process and exhibited work are equally important when working in more-than-human collaborations. One needs time to explore the different possibilities with these technologies and data. You need to hold space for the messiness and contradictions that emerge from this practice to see the options for multiple interpretations and translations into experiences.
Theories such as critical posthumanism, new materialism, and the methodology of diffraction can create an awareness of the process of creating media artworks involving human and non-human encounters. It is to us who are working in the physical world to start experimenting with the requirements to take a responsible and caring position that one is not just using the other but collaborating with respect to the differences. We have to start asking ourselves what it means to take responsibility. We should stay curious about what happens when we do not assume the outcome or interpret it through thinking but give it space to be with and experience it.
There is a growing awareness that there is more knowledge and skill in nature and the capabilities of non-humans than we thought possible, or perhaps we even have forgotten. This tendency can be seen in science, technological developments, and the arts. Jens Hauser describes this form of artistic practice as biomediality, which deals with the intersections of biology, technology, and media in the context of artistic creation. Biomediality unlocks an exploration of the material and epistemological aspects of artistic practice, extending beyond mere imagery and aesthetics. It challenges our perceptions of the human and non-human, prompting us to reevaluate the boundaries that define our understanding of nature and technology.
'ZOE' is the first step in a longer ongoing research into the possibilities of biocomputing with fungi through robotics and more than human-computer interaction. This ongoing research since 2022 called MycoRobotics aims to explore interspecies performativity, seeking to comprehend the intricate connections between human and non-human entities and the role of data in shaping these interactions. MycoRobotics questions the possibilities and implications of harnessing behaviour patterns from fungi to develop nature-driven robotic systems through biocomputing. In addition, it also researches what role these nature-driven systems and more-than-human interactions can play in enabling us to question the relationship between human and non-human entities.
MycoRobotics focuses not simply on representing the activity of the fungi and the robotic system or finding another way of biomimicry. By shifting this relationship to symbiosis with a technological partner rather than an organic one, we have the opportunity to experience how life forms can live and interact together beyond our perception.
Biocomputing with fungi has promising features for designing large environmental sensors through their mycelium network. The mycelium mycorhizal network exchanges information through signals, redistributes and collaborates with other species, such as trees, insects and plants. Unlike plants and humans, the mycelium does not consist of individuals. It is a network organism that can perceive the soil's status and the ecosystem in which it resides. They are one of nature's most crucial carbon reservoirs and thus play an essential role in light of climate issues. Fungal networks could monitor enormous quantities of data flows as part of their daily activity. The moment we are able to interpret their signals. We could collaborate with them and connect to their networks. Through their sensing, we can learn more about what is happening in our ecosystem and act accordingly. This could considerably impact how we look at our environment and climate challenges. The possibility of biocomputing sets everything, including us, in relation to each other. It questions the paradigms of our technology and knowledge of (artificial) intelligence.
