Abstract

Keywords: Technosphere, Physarum polycephalum, mycology, systems theory, sentience, autopoiesis, complexity, biosphere, homeotechnology

This paper is an intermediary between the bio-art sculpture Mycocene (2018) created by the collective somme, and the theory that led us towards creating it. Mycocene is a hybrid work that blends bio-art, sculpture and media art through the methodology of bricolage. It critiques the current humantechnological relationship and its subsequent effects on the environment. Humans have created a symbolic bubble around themselves that attempts to separate them from the natural world. Mycocene acts as a conceptual bridge between this anthropocentric bubble and the natural, aiming to exist as the opalescent residue between them and a discussion point around dissolving their membranes.

• Matthew Halpenny is an interdisciplinary artist and research associate at Computational Arts, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. His research is conducted through the Speculative Life research cluster under the Milieux Institution for the Arts, Technology, and Culture. Halpenny’s artistic work primarily oscillates be-tween bio-art and embodied art, which focuses on the creation of works and dissemination of ideas related to systems theory, autopoiesis, perception, identity, and media ecology. He has lectured at the International Marketplace for Digital Art (MIAN) and is a founding member of the collective somme, whose work has been shown at Elektra XX and Le Centre Pompidou. matthewhalpenny.com