+ about the work

Clusters geolocate their position, collect air pollution data every hour, and adjust their moving speed according to the air pollution levels.They also report their position and can be maintained through wifi. I am interested in exploring ways for pieces to mediate communication between the viewer and the non-human beings by providing hints about the relationships within nature. These pieces were influenced by Braitenberg, a neurobiologist who documented his experiments with simple machines in his book Vehicles (1986). He does this to understand why when the brain has a sensory input on one side of the body, its sensory input is processed on the opposite part of the brain. The vehicles are little cars that have sensors that trigger the motors attached to the wheels. He starts his experiments with simple systems. He then adds more sensors, complicating the connections of the input sensors to the motor function. When the input involves natural elements like sunlight or odors, typically sensed by animals or plants, one instantly perceives these machines as alive and needing those elements. Through this experiment, Braitenberg shows that a system might be much simpler than it appears on the outside, and our assumptions about characterizing nonliving objects mostly depend on why we believe they move or interact with other objects around them and with each other.

The pieces “Clusters,” like Beatenberg’s vehicles, react to the environment and have a simple system, but at times appear much more complex.