RE: [-empyre-] andy gracie (hostprods) introduction

["Jim Andrews" <jim@vispo.com>]

Hi Andy,

Thanks for the interesting post introducing your work. I didn't understand
whether you are primarily trying to understand the cognitive/behavioral
processes of the creatures you study, or whether you are primarily doing
something else. Could you please clarify this?

Thanks,
ja
http://vispo.com


> hi all, it¹s a pleasure to be an invited empyre guest and I¹m looking
> forward to a month of stimulating discussion and virtual cigar
> smoking - so
> here¹s my introduction and a little of what I¹m about.
>
> My work (in collaboration with AI designer Brian Lee Yung Rowe) is an
> attempt to uncover the systems of intelligence and information lodged at
> various levels in various examples of what are commonly regarded as simple
> life forms ­ insects, fish, microbes etc. By deconstructing symbiotic and
> parasitic relationships and inserting artificial agents into the loop we
> hope to promote emergent behaviours that discover or evolve novel forms of
> machine-nature communication and examine their inherent data and cognitive
> structures. We hope that via such processes we can facilitate new modes of
> approaching and understanding the techno-organic environment. With the
> continuous introduction of the man-made, artificial and chimeric into the
> natural environment and the gradual convergence of wetware, software and
> hardware it is worthwhile to explore the adaptive reactions of ecosystems
> and the possibility of new data types suggested by machine-nature
> interactions.
>
> While connections with the notion of the cyborg are inevitable, I am more
> interested in discussion on the wider issues of the junctions between
> organic and inorganic, natural and artificial. Iam more interested in how
> relationships are formed or mediated via the exchange of data
> than in how a
> single agent can be augmented or "improved".
>
> Maybe my first questions should be the main questions I consider
> when making
> my work;
> What constitutes our notion of ?being¹ and how are awareness and
> consciousness embodied through information networks?
> How are intelligence, information and cognitive processes expressed in the
> most basic units or forms of life?
> Can cooperative organic processes also be viewed as a form of "organic
> intelligence" that can be harnessed as a new computing medium?
> What are the practical and conceptual consequences of creating
> bio-artificial environments that promote a collective intelligence that
> embodies parasitism or symbiosis?