INCENTIVOS A LA PRODUCCIÓN IBEROAMERICANA - VIDA 10.0
Mestizo Reyes, Luis Enrique Martínez, Sofía Cordero,
Marcela Ayala, Patricia Muethe y Jonatan Gómez
Colombia
About the project
This project by Hamilton Mestizo (et al) seeks to apply contemporary
biotech research to the question of artificial life in a way that has
relevance to the traditions of robotics, to the emerging fields of
bio-art, and to environmental and ecological issues, as well as to
the history of cybernetics and cybernetically inspired biology. Electricium
Vitum applies the research of Logan, et al into biological sources
of electrical power - bio-batteries - to the construction of a cyborgian
life-form, by using the power from the battery (driven by human waste
decomposed by E.coli) to drive a microcontroller which monitors its
environment (via sensors) in a homeostatic or autopoietic way. This
is an important intervention in robotics because, while processing
has become relatively easy, electromechanical movement is manageable
and sensing is at least tractable in most cases, the question of power
remains unsolved, and is hidden under the table in most (autonomous)
robotics projects - you charge the batteries at the wall socket. That
the generation of its own power is fundamental to Electricium Vitum
is, therefore, a rather profound intervention in robotics and artificial
life.
It is also profound in that its power is derived from the repugnant,
the less than worthless, that matter which, in most cases, is removed,
with attendant energy consumption. This aspect of the work makes it
a provocative intervention into environmental issues. Electricium Vitum
also intervenes in the realm of bio-art. Bio art practices to date
have focused largely on specialised technical practices, such as tissue
culture, DNA manipulation and synthesis of hybrid cells - all practices
made viable for the artist by the boom in genomics and biotech and
the attendant availability of mass-produced lab appliances. In this,
bio-art follows large scale patterns not unlike the early years of
computer art. Electricium Vitum therefore stakes out a new territory
on the margins of bio-art and robotics.