Abstract

Full Paper. Session: Humans and NonHumans / Ecology of Natural and Technical Systems

Keywords: unconventional computing, biological substrate computers, sound art, postdigital, biohacking

This paper describes the central concepts of biological substrate computers, as well as the implementation of a bacterial computer (genetic chip) for artistic creation and its formal implications under the epistemology of ecocritic and complexity sciences.

With the imminent decay of Moore’s law and the difficulties in solving NP problems in computing, researchers around the world have been given the task of finding new ways to manage, process and store information. These new paradigms are known as unconventional computing and among them, biological substrate computers have been developed. These coupled logic gates do not work by directing an electrical current through circuits made of conductive materials, but with collectivities of living organisms and the interaction of their emergent patterns with specific geometries. In this article we will address the implementation of a genetic chip (bacterial computer) in the creation of an artistic work, as well as the paradigm shift from the individualistic artist to the ecology of affections.

• Jaime Alonso Lobato Cardoso, MX. Multimedia artist, composer, curator and independent researcher. He made his studies at the Faculty of Music in the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). He has had three solo exhibitions, at the Sound Experimentation Space in the University Museum of Contemporary Art, at the Laboratorio Arte Alameda, and his retrospective at the Contemporary Art Gallery in Xalapa, México. His work is part of public and private collections. As a multimedia artist he has participated in several collective exhibitions in Mexico, Berlin, New York, Madrid, Montevideo, Hamilton, Saõ Paulo, Bergen, Tallinn, etc. He is founder of SEMIMUTICAS Research Seminar in Music, Mathematics and Computer Studies and Independencia BioLab a biohacker space based in Mexico City. He has several international publications in conference proceedings, journals and books, in editorials such as Cambridge Scholars, Springer-Verlag, Taylor & Francis, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Siglo XXI and the Mexican Mathematical Society. https://www.jaimelobato.com