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S.W.A.M.P. (Douglas Easterly / Matt Kenyon) Spore 1.1 USA http://swamp.nu deaster@syr.edu

Spore 1.1 “Spore 1.1” is a self-sustaining ecosystem for a rubber tree plant purchased from Home Depot. In this project, Home Depot is responsible for the plant in two ways: first, an unconditional guarantee to replace any plant they sell, for up to one year; secondly through an implied cybernetic contract. This second responsibility is the creative contect for the work, where Home Depot’s economic health is transitioned throught a series of physical computing techniques to a mechanism for controlling the watering of the plant. An onboard computer uses a Wi-Fi connection to access Yahoo stock quotes once per week, keeping a database of these week ending stock values. From the fluctuations in Home Depot stock, various programs and circuitry are controlled accordingly. As the company dose well, so does the plant – if the company sufres losses, “Spore 1.1” does not get watered. If the plant should parish, due to poor stock performance, it is returned to the Home depot and replaced with another – at no additional cost. Components: Epia M10000 mother board / 256 mg ram / 2.1 gig HD / redhat 9.0 Linksys wpc 11 Teleo Multi I/0, microcontroller Altec PSU 4 water pumps Tubing / wiring Ficus Elastica (rubber tree plant) Plexi-glass Software: Custom php scripts and C applications

SWAMP artwork attempts to find creative expression within elements of culture that are inherently counter-creative. Shopping malls and fast food chains tessellate around the structure of the automobile; corporate advertising looks to lure larger market shares through various campaigns of product identity worship; popular television orchestrates a web of marketing and entertainment that creates a field of memetic radiation: we are bombarded with an environment having little or no regard for creative exchange as people become variables in demographical, economic and rating system equations. The missing variable in all of these equations is the freedom and importance of the single individual who is usually disregarded in these culture-as-market movements. BIO We are currently working on several new proejcts: Information All-Stars - Flash data visualization SwampBucks - Telepresence performance with MAX/SOFTvns vMall - 3d interface for eCommerce vidSUvius - video sequencer built with MAX/MSP/JITTER Red White and Blue Dawn - Political Critique with MAX/MSP/JITTER