Algorithmic by Nature

ALGORITHMIC BY NATURE

HELENA FRANCIS ROYAL COLLEGE OF ART AD2 2020/21

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The proposal is a more-than-human vision

ALGORITHMIC BY NATURE

system

“poses

a

challenge

to

the

traditional tenets of the self-focused, capital- and fossil-fueled masculinist, who is supposedly in control of his own vision and (world)view”, opening onto a future

that

is

never

fully

reduced

to

the single output signal or the optimised target.

Joanna Zylinska, Nonhuman Photography (London: The MIT Press, 2017) 2

that

01 LOGISTICAL SYSTEM: MACHINE VISION

02 RESISTANCE: BEYOND THE HUMAN |

RESEARCH

00 BRIEF + INTRODUCTION

04 EXPERIMENTS

05 PROCESS

PORTFOLIO

CONTENTS

03 SITE SPECIFIC DESIGN

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SELF-COMPUTING SPACE

06 ARCHIVE

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the

the

ferocious

of

modernity

in

a

tense

architecture

of

regulating flows in our world system. Out of

patterns of life and dictate architectural

the circulations triggered by transatlantic

development

slavery, global capitalism coalesced into

cartographic systems that inscribe bodies

being. Cartography enabled the projection

and the earth with extractive logics whilst

onto

foreclosing other ways of being.

of

territories transit,

capital

of

Held

infrastructures, the flows that feed daily

new

imposition

arrived

thresholds

seamless

BRIEF

advent

of

and

the the

crystallised

desire

for

continue

to

depend

on

imagination

into

logistical

ADS2

explores

the

world-making

infrastructures. A line between land and

possibilities of cartography. Delving into

sea was drawn; bodies born to be free were

the unpredictable realm of the demonic,

racialised as unfree labour; and nature

the studio examines the tension that lies

coerced

between spaces of indeterminacy and the

to

the

will

of

capital

through

infrastructure.

logistical systems that traverse them.

As matter and geography were made to conform

By deconstructing the infrastructures and

to

technologies

by

circulations capital,

determinacy

the

mapped

and

projected

violence

of

logistical

extended

well

beyond

the

systems,

of

ADS2

logistical

confronts

the

RESEARCH JOURNAL

With

cartographic geo-racial-

sexual violence of the worlds they imagine.

shoreline. The unknowable and unpredictable spaces of indeterminate life – what Sylvia

The

Winter described as the ‘demonic’ – endured

knowledges stemming from embodied experiences

the

of black life, non-linear conceptions of

coercive

impositions

of

measure,

control, and logistical calculation.

studio

time,

explores

more-than-human

other

cartographic

perspectives,

and

indigenous subjectivities as the foundation for design interventions.

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Logistical system: Machine vision

Site of indeterminacy: Algorithmic forest

Research questions: The brief calls firstly for a deconstruction

ALGORITHMIC BY NATURE

of the logistical system of machine vision.

Questioning by

how

space

more-than-human

is

acts

reconfigured

of

algorithmic

architectures?

Secondly,

there

is

an

identification

of

indigenous and more-than-human conceptions of space that act as forms of resistance.

How can algorithms be trained by organic and

esoteric

systems,

to

intervene

process

of

extractivism,

technological

in

control, and governance?

Finally,

the

design

of

a

site-specific

intervention of a more-than-human vision system. How can data and algorithmic vision be

represented

(embodied,

as

partial,

situated and

knowledges

accountable)

in

order to develop alternative ways of seeing

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and knowing space?

reminds

us,

adding

that

they

do

not

discriminate against those to whom their In this posthuman intervention, the more-

breath is given.

than-human ontologies of the plant and the work

together,

counterpurposing

The following presentation explores this

the machine vision system to project the

more-than-human

lifeworld

series

of

the

world’s

most

polluted

forest.

of

performative

system

through

a

representations.

The research, a site specific infrastructure strategy,

INTRODUCTION

vision

plant

to

machine

experiments,

In its most basic terms, a system to record

and the generative perceptual overlay of

and livestream the photosynthetic rate of

the data collected from the plants.

the plants.

What

can

human

humans

vision?

learn

How

can

from

more-than-

this

more-than-

human vision formulate not only different ways

of

seeing,

but

different

ways

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machine

of

being. Instead of extractivist practices, exploiting and mining everything that can be deemed a resource. Plants are in constant interaction with the environment. Seeing, thinking

and

being

is

not

an

internal,

“self” privatised process, but a sensing, a constant openness and interaction with its

environment,

full

of

conversations,

discussions and agreements with it. The nature of plants is in our past, Marder

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[ DEC ONST RUCT ING M AC H INE VIS ION ]

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LO G I S T I C A L SYS T E M

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The project spatialises the invisible realm of algorithmic architectures. The data sphere is commonly seen to be non-physical and therefore distinct from the field of the spatial practitioner; however, the project recognises and

and shapes bodies through more-than-human performative acts.

The intended social or political instrumentality of the design

proposal

is

to

recognise

that

we

are

in

the

midst of a data revolution, but this revolution not only

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represents data as an architecture that forms, organises

articulates the proliferation of data as the driving force of our lives but the role it has in catalysing a dramatic and wide reaching change in the way individuals and communities are organised and made visible.

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Algorithmic or machine vision is concerned

all

with

materially and discursively produced from

the

automatic

extraction,

analysis

and understanding of information from every

visual

extracted

input

from

our

imaginable. physical

bodies

beyond

them.

Data

are

both

the multiplicity of forces that include

Data

is

human and more-than-human ontologies.

environment

using the full range of the electromagnetic

It is through the concept of a lifeworld

spectrum.

that algorithmic architectures reconfigure relations and space. Every organism gives

ALGORITHMIC BY NATURE

Machine

vision

systems

are

formed

of

a

nexus of sensors from pieces of code to

stimuli.

Therefore,

networks of satellites feeding corporate

situated

knowledge,

and government actors, also known as the

that can be recognised and detected by a

informatics

project

system through an accumulation of signals.

shows an awareness of the reductive nature

The co-individuation of the epistemic and

of the system and, crucially, its ability

the

to

of

reify

of

domination.

certain

regimes

The

of

power

and

ontological the

world

a

life world,

contains

binds

to

all

certain

knowledge

or

a

things

features

apparatus

in

knowledge production by operating through

a partial and limited way. What matters

an aesthetics and ideology of objectivity

in

and distance.

between

Digital and

ecologies

algorithmic

of

machine

intelligence

vision mediate

a

system

is

not

receivers,

but

receivers

themselves

a

mesh,

specific

the

lens

communication

the that

and

senders

and

individuate

filter

through

which the continuity of the world passes.

preexisting notions of social imbalances.

This

Assemblages of data are not inert productions

through our technologies through what can

but rather lively intraacting ontologies

be described as the Cave architecture.

that are in relation and connection with

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birth to a lifeworld through its spatial

lifeworld

is

projected

back

to

us

With

which—from the point of view of the life

speak of generations of vision and even

world—has no existence whatsoever. In the

of visual heredity from one generation to

context

of

the next. The advent of the logistics of

machine

vision

the

existing systems,

deployment this

of

paralyses

topographical

perception

and

its

memory,

renewed

could

vectors

delocalizing

beyond Western extractivist and humancentric

contrary, ushered in a eugenics of sight,

subjectivity.

this

a pre-emptive abortion of the diversity

gaze, other ways of knowing, of seeing, of

of mental images, of the swarm of image-

being, do not exist.

beings doomed to remain unborn, no longer

the

lifeworld

of

optics,

to see the light of day anywhere.

– Paul Virilio, The Vision Machine

on

for

generation of different forms of realities

In

geometrical

one

the

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SUMMARY

A contrast space or blind spot, also exists,

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has been utilised throughout the history

Images (Your Pictures Are Looking at You)’

of

with

colonialism, and male supremacy to distance

the

statement

“our

eyes

are

fleshy

science,

knowing

in

militarism,

subject

from

capitalism,

things, and for most of human history our

the

everybody

visual culture has also been made of fleshy

everything in the interests of unfettered

things.” Indeed, the research begins with

power. The instruments of visualisation in

the architecture of the eye.

multinationalist,

postmodernist

and

culture

have compounded meanings of disembodiment.

Notions of vision have dominated Western philosophical

accounts

of

how

knowledge

As

Trevor

Paglen

describes:

“machine

is created since Plato’s allegory of the

vision systems are extraordinary intimate

Cave.

extractive

instruments of power that operate through an

system that uses algorithmic architectures

aesthetics and ideology of objectivity, but

in its role to efficiently quantify bodies

the categories they employ are designed to

in

reify the forms of power that those systems

Machine

fixed

space

vision

and

is

time,

an

to

be

used

in

future predictions and simulations.

are set up to serve.” Matteo Pasquinelli

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IN THE CONTEXT OF VISION

Trevor Paglen begins his essay ‘Invisible

states, machine vision is “the distorted, Machine

learning

approaches

are

new eye of the capital’s Master.”

characterised by an aspiration to map the knowable world, a full quantification of visual and recognition regimes of reality.

From cosmological models for the universe to the world of human emotions as interpreted through the tiniest muscle movements in the

human

object

of

face,

everything

quantification.

becomes This

an

vision

Trevor Paglan, Invisible Images (Your Pictures Are Looking at You) (2016) <https:// thenewinquiry.com/invisible-images-your-pictures-are-looking-at-you/> Matteo Pasquinelli, Abnormal Encephalization in the Age of Machine Learning, E-flux Journal 75 (2016)

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BCE.

systems

two

of

thought

around

vision

and

Practices critical

include

the

principles:

discovery

camera

of

obscura

knowledge basis since antiquity. We now

image projection and the observation that

understand vision as a systemic response

some

to reflection of light and photons of our

exposure to light. And then now one modern

environment. In 1604, Kepler, offered the

development / addition to these principles

first theory of the retinal image: ”therefore

is the interfacial image or the ‘image that

vision

does something’ such as augumented reality.

occurs

through

a

picture

of

the

substances

are

visibly

altered

by

visible things on the white, concave surface of the retina.” Envisioning the eye a camera

Materiality:

obscura -- an apt image in an era obsessed

include: the camera obscura and how light

with

can transform space; Stan Brackarges’s Moth

the

science

of

perspective.

The

Film;

defined

Examples

Light

suggests how much new theories of sight

in

placed greater emphasis on the fusion of

understand vision as a systemic response

anatomy and geometry in studying the eye

to light and photons, then photosynthesis

and sight in the formation of knowledges.

as a chemical response to light is a form

Bratten

film;

light.

image of sight from Descartes’ Dioptrics,

plants,

camera

as

photosynthesis

suggests

that

if

we

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IN THE CONTEXT OF VISION

Systems of Thought: The research explores

of non human vision, but vision without Practices: Multi-point perspective allowed

representation, like computer vision.

us to see perception outside of perception and the subsequent application of that in design. The history of photography (or the history

of

human

understanding

of

representation vision)

also

of

began

our in

antiquity, recorded in Chinese writings by Mozi, dated to the 4th century

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Using

Deleuze

assemblages

and

to

Guattari’s

rethink

the

theory

of

ontology

of

data as not an inert entity but rather a lively and vibrant conception of digital data. Data are not just produced from a constellation

of

apparatuses,

they

act,

enact, and intraact with other assemblages, they perform.

ALGORITHMIC BY NATURE

The algorithm is the repetition of data with alterity.

This is understood in the context of Ezekial Dixon-Roman’s

concept

of

‘racialised

data assemblage’ where he describes that “assemblages of data, function in relation to other assemblages. They are not inert productions

but

rather

lively

intra-

acting ontologies that are in relation and connection with all bodies beyond them.

Data are both materially and discursively produced from the multiplicity of forces that

include

ontologies.”

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human

and

more-than-human

Digital

machine

learning

created. To take the position that human life

intelligence

mediate

and phenomenon can be represented by data

preexisting notions of social imbalances.

amplifies what Donna Haraway calls a common

Race, gender, class, sexuality, location

move of the technological sciences and this

become organising principles in our data

move interprets the world as a problem of

culture.

coding. Differences in our communities are

algorithmic

of

cemented through “disassembly, reassembly, As Ramon Amaro describes: “data reinforces

investment and exchange” which she describes

beliefs that contemporary life, individual

as “the informatics of domination”.

and community behaviour can be reduced to one giant mathematical problem. What we are

These algorithms normalise values and modes

faced with is a tension between the desire

of behaviour but circumvent and paralyses

to classify and optimise social phenomenon

generation of different types of realities.

and the reproduction of existing forms of

Algorithms

racism and other violences.” Data, which

experiences into algorithmic averages that

is commonly viewed as a raw material to

are then compiled into classification, which

be

are

experimented

upon

and

analysed,

is

representative of the flesh itself.

then

are

designed

compiled

into

to

reduce

human

predictions

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RACIALISED ASSEMBLAGE

and

ecologies

and

projections about future behaviour. Amaro questions “what does that leave to the person

Computer vision algorithms are effective

who is an outlier to the mathematics, that

at abstracting the world into categories

person of difference, that person of colour

measures and other representational forms

of different sexuality or discriminatory

using numbers, characters, symbols, images,

gender?”

sounds,

electromagnetic

waves

and

bits

that constitute the building blocks from which information and knowledge are

A. Weheliye, Habeas Viscus: Racializing assemblages, biopolitics, and Black feminist theories of the human (Durham, NC, Duke University Press: 2014) Ezekiel Dixon-Román, ‘Algo-Ritmo: MoreThan-Human Performative Acts and the Racializing Assemblages of Algorithmic Architectures’, Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 16(5) (2016), 482–490

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Algorithmic or machine vision is concerned

and limited way. What matters in a system

with

analysis

is not the communication between receivers,

and understanding of information from every

but the senders and receivers themselves.

visual input imaginable. Data is extracted

In the genesis of the perceptual apparatus

from our physical environment by sensors

is the genesis of a specific lifeworld .

the

automatic

extraction,

using the full range of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Each machine vision system individuates a

Data is then filtered through a series of

the continuity of the world passes. This

filters,

lifeworld is projected back to us through

meshes

and

lenses

that

creates

what can be described as a ‘lifeworld’.

our

technologies

through

what

can

be

described as the Cave architecture.

It is through the creation of lifeworlds that algorithmic architectures reconfigure relations gives

birth

spatial as and

and

an

to

space. a

stimuli,

lifeworld it’s

accumulation

outputs.

Every

of

world

organism

through

understood

signals,

Therefore,

a

its

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N E W E X T R A CT I V I S M

specific mesh, lens and filter through which

inputs

life world,

also described by Haraway as a situated knowledge, contains all the things that can

be

recognised

and

detected

by

a

system. Within cybernetic apparatus, the co-individuation of the epistemic and the ontological binds certain features of the world to knowledge apparatus in a partial

Adrian Lahoud, Error Correction. Chilean Cybernetics and Chicago’s Economists.

In: Matteo Pasquinelli (Hg.): Alleys of Your Mind. Augmented Intelligence and Its Traumas. Lüneburg: meson press (2015) Vladen Joler, New Extractivism (2020)

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EXTRACTION OF NATURE, DATA

Vladen Joler, New Extractivism (2020)

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A AND LABOUR

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N E W E X T R A CT I V I S M

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CAPITALISM IN THE WEB OF LIFE

Vladen Joler, New Extractivism (2020)

ALGORITHMIC BY NATURE

LIDAR = LIGHT DETECTION AND RANGING 35

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N E W E X T R A CT I V I S M

PIXEL

SURVELLANCE CAMERA

ALGORITHMIC BY NATURE

SATELLITE

CELL TOWER 36

RADIO TELESCOPE

SENSORS

The planetary scale surveillant assemblage

electromagnetic spectrum: from gamma rays

is

and x-rays, through infrared and visible

one

of

behind

critical

new

Thousands actors

the

extractivism

of

are

infrastructures

corporate

and

independent

of

practices.

light, to micro and radio waves. They can be

government

invisible like a Facebook pixel or massive

each

other,

like a 500m wide radio telescope.

the

invisible

network

of

data

dealers,

public and not public partnerships, those pieces of information are in a constant flow

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N E W E X T R A CT I V I S M

collecting information about us. Through

forming one functional entity. Surveillant assemblage

can

be

seen

as

a

rhizomatic

structure described by Deleuze and Guattari.

At

the

roots,

end the

of

each

of

the

rhizome’s

tentacles

of

the

planetary

surveillance many

sensors.

rhizome,

there

These

capture

are

one

agents

or can

take many forms and sizes. From the tiny pieces of code, crawlers that wander the web collecting information about each web page, over the sensors catching heartbeats and

surveillance

cameras

capturing

our

faces, to the complex network of satellites orbiting Earth and locating devices. They can see reality through a full range of the

Vladen Joler, New Extractivism (2020)

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SCALE

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N E W E X T R A CT I V I S M

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MESHES, LENSES, FILTERS

“Instruments of measurement and perception always come with inbuilt aberrations. In the same way that the lenses of microscopes and telescopes are never perfectly curvilinear and smooth, these logical lenses embody

learning and algorithms and register their impact on society is to study the degree by which social data are diffracted and distorted by these lenses.” The shape of the algorithmic lenses is carefully crafted to project the image that is in accordance with the platform’s interest and political goals and values.

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N E W E X T R A CT I V I S M

faults and biases. To understand machine

Aside from instruments of digital truth and order embodied in their algorithms and neural

networks,

platforms

often

imply

direct rules and regulations. They have direct

power

of

regulation

of

what

can

be seen or said, what kind of content can and cannot exist in their universe. Here these rules and regulations are visually represented as filters and meshes.

Vladen Joler, New Extractivism (2020)

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CAVE ARCHITECTURE

ALGORITHMIC BY NATURE

PROJECTION OF THE WORLD

LENS

FILTER

MESH

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PROJECTION OF THE WORLD

Instruments of measurement and perception are

defining

hierarchies

and

relations

between content, users and meaning. They define

the

digital

regime

of

truth

and

order. This regime is a prism through which

constant stream of spectacles on the walls of the caves.

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N E W E X T R A CT I V I S M

the world is projected in the form of the

Vladen Joler, New Extractivism (2020)

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CAVE ARCHITECTURE

Plato

describes

a

group

of

people

who

spend their entire life chained to cave walls

looking

people real

are

at

a

blank

watching

objects

projected

the on

wall.

These

shadows this

of

wall,

story, the script and directing of this performance of shadows are entrusted to human-algorithmic machines that regulate, filter, censor and moderate the projected content on the walls of the cave. The existing elements and content that exist outside this cave and horizon of events create of

an

shadows.

information Or,

what

flow, Guy

a

theatre

Debord

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N E W E X T R A CT I V I S M

giving them names and meanings. In our

will

describe as: “an immense accumulation of spectacles consisting of images, sounds, text,

emotions

and

meanings.

All

that

once was directly lived has become a mere representation”.

Vladen Joler, New Extractivism (2020)

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ALGORITHMIC BY NATURE

[ BEYOND THE HUMAN | SELF COMPUTING SPACE ]

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R E S I S TA N C E

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ALGORITHMIC BY NATURE

To intervene in this system the project embarks of

on

a

re-writing

algorithmic

algorithms

the

architectures.

as

a

innovation

of

recent,

history

Some

see

technological

implementing

intelligible to itself. A search engine.

abstract

Embracing the idea that the machine world acts

as

world,

an

extension

capable on

of

its

of

healing usage

the or

and

organic poisoning

mathematics. On the contrary, algorithms

depending

users.

The

are among the most ancient and material

project questions how can algorithms be

practices, predating many human tools and

trained by organic and esoteric systems,

modern machines.

to intervene in technological process of

Algorithmic computing

architectures

not

that

organisms

and

technologies

bottom-up structures. The research locates

cyborg innovation, but that the species

these at a cellular scale and a spiritual

is

scale.

systems

its ancient automated landscapes, forever

actors.

entangled with systems of value.

considered

in

of

is

are only now merging as part of some new

Molecules

capable

selfcomplex

are

spaces

are

biological

self-computing

the

result

of

its

co-evolution

with

RESEARCH JOURNAL

SUMMARY

extractivism, control, and governance? It

Similarly cultural rituals are identified as expressions of algorithmic thought from

Plant

knowing

the ancient Vedic ritual of Agnicayana,

A

the Zarija astrological device, and the

vision is photosynthesis. Vision without

Yoruba Ifa divination system.

representation. A process of data. Sensing

systemic

is

a

response

sensual to

light.

growth.

Plant

not seeing.

There are algorithms embedded in culture.

There are algorithms embedded in nature.

Algorithms process

of

are the

quite world

simply trying

an to

ongoing become

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SUMMARY

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S E L F - C O M P U T I N G S PA C E

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ALGORITHMIC BY NATURE

architectures

exist

in

of the Yoruba people of East Africa and

indigenous culture and the organic world.

the medieval Arab astrologers Zā’irja.

The French mathematician Jean-Luc Chabert

Alan Turing’s last essay, “The Chemical

has noted that “algorithms have been around

Basis of Morphogenesis” also belongs to the

since the beginning of time and existed

tradition

well before a special word had been coined

Turing considered molecules in biological

to describe them. Algorithms are simply

systems as self-computing actors capable of

a set of step by step instructions, to

explaining complex bottom-up structures,

be carried out quite mechanically, so as

such as tentacle patterns in hydra, whorl

to

arrangement

achieve

some

may

some see

desired

algorithms

technological

innovation

result.” as

a

Today

recent,

implementing

embryos,

of

self-computing

in

plants,

dappling

in

structures.

gastrulation

animal

skin,

in and

phyllotaxis in flowers.

abstract mathematical principles. On the contrary, algorithms are among the most ancient and material practices, predating

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S E L F - C O M P U T I N G S PA C E

Algorithmic

many human tools and all modern machines.

The ancient Vedic Agnicayana ritual transmits techniques

of

geometric

approximation

and incremental growth <in other words, algorithmic techniques> comparable to the modern calculus.

Algorithmic

thought

is

also

found

in

divination systems such as the Ifa system

Matteo Pasquinelli, Three Thousand Years of Algorithmic Rituals: The Emergence of AI from the Computation of Space, E-flux Journal 101 (2019) Alan Turing,

The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis

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S E L F - C O M P U T I N G S PA C E AGNICAYANA RITUAL

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C O M P U T I N G S PA C E

ZA’IRJA DEVICE

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“Diseases,

or

climates,

or

plants

make

history as much as any empire”.

Capitalism in the Web of Life is about how the mosaic of relations that we call capitalism work through nature.

resource; it is us. As Moore tells us, we

It is a proposal of a post-cartesian world.

must live history as if nature matters.”

Cyborgs, assemblages, networks, hybrids, have

Charting

recurrent

a

way

forward

to

as

limits so much environmentalism. It is not

socio-ecological process over the past six

that organisms and technologies are only

centuries, Jason Moore provides a theory

now merging as part of some new cyborg

and

innovation, but that the species is the

historical

development

of

account that

and

as

resist the nature/society distinction that

expansions

crises,

offered

long

cyclical

the

been

capitalism

of

capitalism’s

comprehends

the

result of its co-evolution with its ancient

transformation of nature as constitutive

automated

of capital accumulation.

with systems of value. Distributed vision

or Drawing and

on

environmentalist,

Marxist

groundbreaking

thought, new

Moore

synthesis:

feminist, offers

landscapes,

distributed

forever

sensing

was

entangled

already

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C A P I TA L I S M I N T H E W E B O F L I F E

“Nature is not a foundation, container, or

embodied in the world before we arrived.

a

capitalism

as a “world-ecology” of wealth, power, and nature.

Moore expands the Marxian theory of value to

more

explicitly

incorporate

the

role

of non-human natures in the creation of value.

Jason Moore, Capitalism in the Web of Life (2015)

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The divide between the digital and the real

identity. Russell reveals the many ways

world no longer exists: we are connected

that the glitch performs and transforms:

all the time. What must we do to work out

how

who we are, and where we belong? How do we

encrypts, mobilises and survives.

it

refuses,

throws

shade,

ghosts,

find the space to grow, unite and confront the

systems

of

oppression?

This

conflict

can be found in the fissures between the

considered a mistake, a faulty overlaying, a bug in the system; in contrast, we can find

liberation

here.

Glitch

feminism

RESEARCH JOURNAL

TO G L I TC H A SYS T E M

body and identity. Too often, the glitch is

argues that we need to embrace the glitch as a cultural phenomenon with the capacity for

contextualising

providing bodies It

information,

relationship

and

also

spaces

to

the

connected

encompasses

and

material together.

representation,

interpretation or reflection on social and cultural

phenomenon

and

the

technology

that is malfunctioning (Menkman, 2011). It shows its potential as an alternative way of repurposing machine vision softwares.

Glitch in

Feminism

is

cyberfeminism,

relationship

a

one

between

vital that

new

chapter

explores

technology

the and

Legacy Russell, Glitch Feminism: A Manifesto (2020)

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“Feminist objectivity means quite simply

everybody and everything in the interests

situated knowledges.“

of unfettered power”. The “god trick” is about

“Vision

requires

instruments

of

vision;

enacting

nowhere”.

“a

This

conquering

gaze

while

is

gaze

claimed

materializing

from

to

be

what

it

an optics is a politics of positioning.

immaterial

Instruments of vision mediate standpoints“.

embraces (particularly how bodies matter:

“We

seek

not

the

by

bodies are deprived of meaning, and how

vision.

bodies (and meanings) materialise), it is

We seek those ruled by partial sight and

claimed to have the capacity to see, but is

limited

its

itself unseen, “to represent while escaping

of

representation”. This gaze also erases the

openings

semiotic-material conditions that enable

phallogocentrism

voice

-

own

sake

but,

the

connections

knowledges

and

disembodied

not

partiality

rather, and

ruled

for

the

unexpected

for sake

situated knowledges make possible.”

vision (for example technologies of vision and how they were developed).

The notion of situated knowledges is further developed by Donna Haraway via a metaphor

The vision (as a metaphor) that Haraway

of vision. Notions of vision, viewpoints,

proposes

eyes,

accountable/answerable for what one sees

and

seeing

have

dominated

many

philosophical accounts of how knowledge is

is

embodied,

partial,

RESEARCH JOURNAL

S I T U AT E D K N O W L E D G E S

which bodies have which meanings, which

and

and how one organises what one sees.

created. Haraway does not abandon vision as

a

metaphor

processes,

of

choosing

knowledge instead

production to

revisit

it. She describes how performing “the god trick” is enabled by “a perverse capacity […] to distance the knowing subject from

Donna Haraway, ‘Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective.’ Feminist Studies, vol. 14, no. 3, 1988

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Experimental

–

ayahuasca,

plants can see when you’re standing next

animism and healing’ describes how plants

to them, and the colour of your shirt.

come

to

They don’t have eyes, but they have the

are

same photoreceptor proteins all over their

sentient beings, impart wisdom, have agency

bodies that humans have at the back of the

and intention. Various forms of care are

retina. Plants don’t have brains, but they

extended

translate

decolonial

with

indigenous

to

perspectives

their

worlds.

on

According

epistemologies,

plants.

They

plants

form

part

of

science

has

information

confirmed

into

that

electrical-

kinship structures, and their genealogies

chemical signals in their cells identical

may be entan gled with those of the humans

to the ones used by human neurons.

who domesticate and propagate them.

If logic is defined by rigidity, then then Sanabria

reflects

on

the

importance

of

decolonizing our understandings of healing

the essence of plant thinking is sensual growth.

and of what (or who) plants are and do.

Marder cites the concept of Western economic Indeed,

science

discovering

growth, an example of limited thinking,

that which indigenous cultures have always

the essence of which is solely to increase

known.

there

value by exploiting and mining everything

has been a revolution in vegetal biology.

that can be deemed a resource or commodity.

Plants perceive light, smell, touch, water

Plants, in turn, are in constant interaction

and many more variables than we do. They

with the environment, they feel and test

can

communicate.

the limits of the surrounding environment

They exhibit the traits we associate with

and are able to respond to them. Slowing

personhood.

down

Over

learn,

the

is

only

past

remember,

now

two

and

decades

their

growth

when

conditions

RESEARCH JOURNAL

INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGES: ANIMISM

Emilia Sanabria in her work ‘Speaking Plants

are

Emilia Sanabria, Speaking Plants – decolonial perspectives on ayahuasca, animism and healing (2019)

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unfavourable or when reproduction has to

philosophical

begin.

enough, the absolute familiarity of plants coincides for

internal,

plants,

thinking

isolated,

is

not

the

incapacity

of

sheer

humans

strangeness, to

recognize

“self”

elements of ourselves in the form of a

privatized process, as it has been accepted,

vegetal being, and, hence, the uncanny—

at least since Descartes, but a constant

strangely familiar—nature of our relation

openness and interaction with the external

to them.”

environment,

subjective

an

their

Curiously

full

of

conversations,

discussions and agreements with it. It goes

The nature of plants is in our anamnesis,

hand in hand with the idea of thinking as

Marder reminds us, adding that they do not

the ability to interpret knowledge received

discriminate against those to whom their

from the environment.

breath is given.

In

contrast,

(biologists

highly

note

environmental respond)

are

at

sensitive least

factors still

20

to

plants

different

which

considered

to

RESEARCH JOURNAL

INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGES: ANIMISM

Thus,

with

discourses.

they be

so

extremely different and at the same time such

a

mundane

life

form

that

they

are

seldom even covered by the philosophically binding category of “other”.

“We take plants for granted, so that our practical lack of attention appropriately matches

their

marginalization

within Michael

Marder, Plant-thinking: A Philosophy of Vegetal Life (2013)

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Here the project draws parallels between

fuel the organism’s metabolic activities.

machine and plant vision. When vision is

Through

defined as a systemic response to light and

forest operates as a generative algorithm.

the

photosynthetic

process,

the

photons or a vision without representation.

We understand vision as a reaction to light and photons, therefore photosynthesis is a form of plant vision. But unlike the human, who sees through an image on our retina,

It is vision as a process of data, like the machine. A sensing more than a seeing.

RESEARCH JOURNAL

PLANT VISION

this is a vision without representation.

The way plants respond to light is how the forest sees and knows reality. It is its lifeworld.

Nature is an algorithmic simulation in its own right. It merely operates at a different time scale and a different conception of space to the human.

We understand leaves as a sensory organ or a filmic media registering shifts light intensity

and

colour

ranges

beyond

the

human. The plant cells then convert light energy into chemical energy that, through cellular respiration, can be released to Benjamin Bratton, Remarks on the Hole of Representation in Computer ‘Vision’ (2017)

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PLANT VISION

PHOTOSYNTHESIS

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+

H2O +

CO2

PLANT VISION 1. LIGHT DEPENDENT REACTIONS PROCESS OF LIGHT ENERGY

SUGAR

+

O2

RESEARCH JOURNAL

PLANT VISION

LIGHT ENERGY

VISION EXTENDING TO OTHER ACTORS 2. CALVIN CYCLE PROCESS OF CO2

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Light or vision determines how the forest

response to these light processes. At the

acts in space and time. For plants, solar

most basic level, the electrical signalling

energy is the basis of functioning. Just

is similar and serves as the most universal

as the human lifeworld is dependent on our

system for intracellular, intercellular,

senses of sight, touch, smell, and taste.

organ-to-organ

The plants lifeworld or ‘vision’ process

communication.

and

organism-to-organism

is defined by the processing of light into Using network of mycorrhizal fungi, plants

PLANT VISION

can Light

dependant

reactions

allows

plants

collectively

manage

absorbed

energy

and resources, help each other to survive,

to optimise their use of space. They see

and

in red and blue light. Photoperiodism is

community. The forest is a community where

the

this

ability

to

use

red

light

to

track

regulate

vision

homeostasis

is

of

distributed

the

plant

creating

a

time. Plants can tell the time of day and

sustaining ecology that extends to other

time of year by sensing and using various

actors, through their breathe. Therefore,

wavelengths of red light. Phototropism is

the

a directional response that allows plants

Avatar

to grow towards, or even away from, blue

science fiction, particularly when it comes

light.

to plant neurobiology.

To

increase

chances

of

survival

world

presented

movie

in

seems

James

closer

to

Cameron’s

RESEARCH JOURNAL

electrical signals and movement.

reality

and

proliferation, organisms at each level of organisation need to communicate internal and external factors to adjust energy status in

fluctuating

plants

generate

environment. electrical

Therefore, signals

in

Magdalena Szechyńska-Hebda, Maria Lewandowska and Stanisław Karpiński, Electrical Signaling, Photosynthesis and Systemic Acquired Acclimation, Frontiers in Physiology Plant Sensory Systems and Responses https://courses.lumenlearning.com/ b o u n d l e s s - b i o l o g y /ch a p t e r /p l a n t sensory-systems-and-responses/

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Light and photosynthetic pigments https://www.khanacademy.org /science/biology/photosynthesis-in-plants/ the-light-dependent-reactions-of-photosynthesis/a/light-and-photosynthetic-pigments

-

+

INCREASING ENERGY

EXCITED STATE ABSORPTION OF PHOTON BUMPS ELECTRON TO A HIGH-ENERGY ORBITAL

PHOTON

PHOTON

GROUND STATE

RESEARCH JOURNAL

+

ABSORPTION SPECTRA OF PIGMENTS

-

absorption of light

PLANT VISION

PIGMENT MOLECULE

350

400

450

500

550

600

650

700

wavelength (nm)

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[ INFRAST RUCT URE ]

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SITE SPECIFIC DESIGN

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The

following

site

the light dependent reactions of plants

specific design of how this system could

go on to influence the network of other

work. In northern Siberia lies the worlds

actors within the forest, the forest also

most

extends

polluted

presentation

forest.

is

The

a

forest

is

to

us,

to

influence

us

thorough

shrinking due to rampant air pollution,

our technologies. More-than-human vision

both from neighbouring ore mines and the

systems

influx of the worlds pollutions travelling

relations and power structures. Where the

north,

code

that

is

blocking

sunlight

and

slowing the growth of boreal forests.

are

of

the

processes

entangled

machine

of

to

and

nature

reconfigure

the

biological

dwell

together,

In

this

forest

infrastructure

of

lies sensors

a

machinic that

works

reduced to the single output signal, to the optimised target.

through plant vision to translate itself into a perceptual overlay that is live

Plant vision understood as photosynthesis

streamed on the internet.

has

2

stages.

The

first

is

a

non-

representational process of data to fuel Using network of mycorrhizal fungi, plants

the

collectively manage absorbed energy and

that

resources. The forest is a community where

sensors act as an extension of this. The

this vision is distributed, creating a

second is that visions ability to influence

sustaining ecology that extends to other

other

actors, through their breathe.

photosynthetic process does. This lies in

organisms is

metabolic

plant

beings

vision

beyond

activities.

for

the

plants.

plant,

as

RESEARCH JOURNAL

SUMMARY

opening onto a future that is never fully

So The

the

the perceptual overlay that reenters the This way of knowing and perceiving space

logistical human-machine vision system.

reenters the logistical machine vision system

through

the

internet.

Just

as

83

ALGORITHMIC BY NATURE

RESEARCH

RESEARCH

Logistical system:

Resistance:

Machine vision

More-than-human knowledges

RE-ENTERS THE LOG

84

INTERVENTION DESIGN

Counter-purposing of machine

Perceptual overlay of

vision infrastructure to

plant vision

enable plant vision INFORMED BY Specific site and environmental parameters

Plant-machine experiments

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DESIGN

GISTICAL SYSTEM

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87

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EXISTING, BEING: WHOLE SELF-REFERENCE OBJECT

PLANE OF TOTALITY IMAGE

(REFERENCIAL DRIFT) SELF-CREATION (AUTOGENESIS)

LOGICAL NETWORKS: RELATIONS PLANE OF INFORMATION

ALGORITHMIC BY NATURE

SELF-REGULATION + HOMEOSTASIS/MORPHOGENESIS

IN

OUT

(INFORMATION OR NEGENTROPIC DRIFT) SELF-PRODUCTION (AUTOPOIESIS)

PHYSICAL STRUCTURES: OBJECTS P PLANE OF ENERGY MATERIAL EXCHANGE

R

MORPHOGENISIS (SELF-ORGANISATION)

FLOW OF TIME = ENTROPIC DRIFT = GLOBAL TREND TOWARDS THE PROBABLE = INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL DISSIPATION

ONTOLOGICAL RELATION

INTERACTIVE RELATION

CONCEPTUAL NODE

P

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PHYSICAL IMPACT OF ACTIONS OF MAN

R

RESPONSES FROM THE ENVIRONMENT

The

but also a vector of information.

understood as a collection or gathering

The automated forest is defined as a

of things or people, a machine or object

physical

in

made of pieces fitted together, or a work

its own right. Inspired by algorithms

of art made by grouping together found

in nature, the simulation is an agent-

or unrelated objects. This project is

based,

complex

precisely that: one big assemblage of

system. Self-organising systems gain

different concepts and ideas, assembled

autonomy as they are controlled from

into one semi-coherent picture or let

within

us say a map, a world view.

algorithmic

self-evolving

the

organism

simulation

and

and

respond

to

word

“assemblage”

is

usually

their ever-changing diversity.

I will lean on Deleuze and Guattari’s (1980/1987) theory of assemblages to rethink the ontology of data as not an inert entity but rather a lively and

vibrant

conception

of

digital

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F O R E S T A S A S I M U L AT I O N

Light is not only the source of growth

data. Data are not just produced from a constellation of apparatuses, they act, enact, and intra-act with other assemblages.

89

LEAF that catches

LIGHT

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that photosynthesises

C E LL that processes

E L E CT R I C A L S I G N A L that communicates

B R E AT H E that sustains

E C O SYST E M is influenced

90

SENSOR that records

LIGHT

A LG O R I T H M that processes

E L E CT R I C A L S I G N A L that projects

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S U P P LY C H A I N

that reflects

IMAGE that fluctuates

HUMAN is influenced

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SHRINKING ARCTIC FORESTS LINKED TO LEGACY OF RUSSIA’S MOST POLLUTED CITY

Rampant air pollution in northern Siberia is blocking sunlight and slowing the growth of boreal forests.

The

largest

study

of

tree

rings

in

ALGORITHMIC BY NATURE

Norilsk, Russia’s most polluted city and the northernmost city in the world, has found air pollution from local mines and smelters are at least partly to blame for a phenomenon known as ‘Arctic dimming’.

Similar

to

‘global

dimming’,

this

more

regional effect occurs when tiny particulates – from air pollution, volcanic eruptions, and dust – gather in the atmosphere, where they

partially

absorb

or

scatter

solar

energy, messing with light availability, evaporation, and hydrology on the ground.

Long-term

observations

and

satellite

measurements have shown the amount of solar radiation

reaching

the

Arctic’s

surface

has decreased since the mid-century.

92

After nearly a century of heavy, unregulated

intense and frequent wildfires are wiping

mining,

out huge swathes of Siberia on an annual

tree

die-off

near

Norilsk

has

spread up to 100 kilometres, but this is

basis,

contributing

one of the first studies to connect that

air pollution.

to

further

regional

shrinking forest with reduced sunlight.

While some global warming models suggest Unfortunately,

because

of

large-scale

growth

will

increase

with

climate

circulation patterns, pollutants accumulate

change, the research highlights that air

in the Arctic atmosphere, and this means

pollution may outweigh this, meaning trees

ecosystems

in the Arctic north will grow slower and

north

may

be

especially

weaker than before.

RESEARCH JOURNAL

up

vulnerable to global pollution as a whole.

SITE

tree

“The scale of the damage shows just how vulnerable and sensitive the boreal forest is.”

“Given the ecological importance of this biome, the pollution levels across the highnorthern latitudes could have an enormous impact on the entire global carbon cycle.”

Nor is pollution the only threat to these precious ecosystems, sometimes described as ‘lungs’ for our planet. Climate change looks

as

though

it’s

also

altering

the

diversity of boreal forests, while more

Shrinking Arctic Forests Linked to Legacy of Russia’s Most Polluted City https://www.sciencealert.com/tree-ringstudy-finds-air-pollution-is-so-bad-its-dimming-the-sun-and-slowing-treegrowth

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RESEARCH JOURNAL NO MAN’S LAND: THE ARCTIC AS SEEN BY A LIDAR SCANNER, https://strelkamag.com/en/article/ arctic-fieldtrip (2017)

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S EN SO R

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G R I D B A SE D ON T RE E SP RE AD

SE N SOR

S EN S

S EN SO R

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S ENS O R

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SENSOR

SO R

SENSOR

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BIRD BOX

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DATA LOGGER + CELLULAR DATA TRANSFER

CONNECTION TO GRID

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SO PA

OLAR ANEL

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VACCINIUM VITIS-IDAEA

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FROM THE PLANT’S PERSPECTIVE

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ABIES SIBIRICA

DATA LOGGER + CELLULAR DATA TRANSFER

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FROM THE PLANT’S PERSPECTIVE

CANOPY LAYER

35M

TREE SPE

BIRD SPE

MIDSTORY LAYER

15M

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INSECT S

ANIMAL S

SHRUB LAYER

1M

PLANT SP

GRID OF S

GROUND LAYER

0M

MYCELIU

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ECIES SIBERIAN LARCH DAHURIAN LARCH SIBERIAN PINE SCOTS PINE SIBERIAN SPRUCE SIBERIAN FIR BIRCH POPLAR

SPECIES BLACK DARTER PEACOCK BUTTERFLY PEARL-BORDERED FRITILLARY WOOD ANT

SPECIES

PECIES

SENSORS

LIGONBERRY FIREWEED BILBERRY SIBERIAN DWARF PINE LICHEN SPHAGNUM MOSS LEATHERLEAF MARSH LABRATOR TEA

SIBERIAN TIGER AMUR LEOPARD EAST SIBERIAN BROWN BEAR WILD BOAR EURASIAN WOLF MOOSE WILD REINDEER ELK SIBERIAN CHIPMUNK LYNX SIBERIAN WEASEL RED FOX

GOLDEN EAGLE PEREGRINE FALCON OSPREY HAZEL GROUSE SIBERIAN GROUSE BLACK GROUSE WESTERN CAPERCAILLIE BLACK-BILLED CAPERCAILLIE WILLOW PTARMIGAN ROCK PTARMIGAN BLACK STORK HOODED CRANE CARRION CROW SIBERIAN BLUE AND RUFOUS-TAILED ROBINS THRUSH NIGHTINGALE PALLAS’S ROSEFINCH PACIFIC SWIFT COMMON GOLDENEYE SMEW KING EIDER SPECTACLED EIDER BAIKAL TEAL

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ECIES

UM STRUCTURES

MOVEMENT ELECTRICAL RESPONSE LIGHT: COLOUR INTENSITY DIRECTIONALITY DURATION

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LARIX SIBIRICA

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PINUS SIBIRICA

LARIX GMELINII

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PINUS SYLVESTRIS

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RHODODENDRON TOMENTOSUM

CHAMAEDAPHNE CALYCULATA

LICHEN

137

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VACCINIUM ULIGINOSUM

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VACCINIUM VITIS-IDAEA

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ACTOR

LIFESPAN

HEIGHT

LIFE CYCLE

SIBERIAN LARCH - LARIX SIBIRICA

700 YEARS

20–50 M

DECIDOUS

DAHURIAN LARCH - LARIX GMELINII

700 YEARS

10–30 M

DECIDOUS

SIBERIAN PINE - PINUS SIBIRICA

300-1000YRS

30–40 M

EVERGREEN

SCOTS PINE - PINUS SYLVESTRIS

500-700YRS

-35M

EVERGREEN

SIBERIAN SPRUCE - PICEA OBOVATA

500-700YRS

15–35 M

EVERGREEN

SIBERIAN FIR - ABIES SIBIRICA

200-500YRS

30–35 M

EVERGREEN

LINGONBERRY - VACCINIUM VITIS-IDAEA

150YRS

10 TO 40 CM

EVERGREEN

FIREWEED - CHAMAENERION ANGUSTIFOLIUM

1-3YRS

0.5–2.5 M

PERENNIAL

BILBERRY -VACCINIUM ULIGINOSUM

150YRS

10–75 CM

EVERGREEN

SIBERIAN DWARF PINE - PINUS PUMILA

300-1000YRS

1–3 M

EVERGREEN

LICHEN (REINDEER MOSS)

500-5000YRS

1CM

EVERGREEN

SPHAGNUM - MOSS

500-5000YRS

2-10 CM

EVERGREEN

LEATHERLEAF - CHAMAEDAPHNE CALYCULATA

150YRS

1.5 M

EVERGREEN

MARSH LABRADOR TEA - RHODODENDRON TOMENTOSUM

150YRS

50 CM

EVERGREEN

JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL

EVERGREEN

JUNE JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER

FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL MAY

PERENNIAL

JUNE JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER OCTOBER

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JANUARY

NOVEMBER DECEMBER

JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL MAY JUNE

DECIDUOUS

D E T E R M I N I N G L I G H T FA C TO R S

MAY

JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER

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[ P E RC E P T UAL OVE RL AY ]

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EXPERIMENTS

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order

to

the

point cloud data set from a lidar scan of

perceptual overlay of forest vision, I set

the forest. A series of scripts are then

up a series of experiments between sensor

applied to it using the input data from

and plant. These sensors record light, in

the experiments so that it can fluctuate

its

with light quality and pollution levels.

different

durations,

SUMMARY

and

inform

the

the

colours,

electrical

movement

or

design

of

intensities

response growth

and

signals,

of

specific

The

light

colour

and

intensity

are

plants from the Siberian ecology to inform

determined by scale and position of the

an understanding of each plant in time and

plant within the forest.

space.

The movement direction of the points is based

Light dependant reactions allows plants to

on

the

suns

position

in

the

sky

relative to the specific plant.

optimise their use of space. They can tell the time of day and time of year by sensing

The speed and sound is based the electrical

and

signals representing the quality of their

using

various

wavelengths

of

red

light. They use blue wavelengths to inform

photosynthetic

their directionality, growth and movement.

industrial

The plants generate electrical signals in

neighbouring mines. It’s is elongated or

response

The

shortened based on the real time of the

electrical signalling serves as the most

specific plant. For example, lichen which

universal system for communication.

lives for 5000 years would operate very

to

these

light

processes.

rate.

metal

The

patch

sound

uses

because

of

an

RESEARCH JOURNAL

In

the

differently to a perennial that lives only The

experiment

representation

output of

the

data

informs

perceptual

the

1.

space.

A unity space is used as a design tool where, the perceptual overlay exists as a

147

1 LIGHT COLOUR ADJUSTMENT TO ELECTRICAL SIGNAL OUTPUT IN: A)PINUS SIBIRICA, B)VACCINIUM VITIS-IDAEA, C)CHAMAENERION ANGUSTIFOLIUM, D)PINUS PUMILA, E)LICHEN, F) SPHAGNUM, G)CHAMAEDAPHNE CALYCULATA, H) ALGORITHMIC BY NATURE

RHODODENDRON TOMENTOSUM.

2 LIGHT INTENSITY CHANGE TO ELECTRICAL SIGNAL OUTPUT IN: A)PINUS SIBIRICA, B)VACCINIUM VITIS-IDAEA, C)CHAMAENERION ANGUSTIFOLIUM, D)PINUS PUMILA, E)LICHEN, F) SPHAGNUM, G)CHAMAEDAPHNE CALYCULATA, H) RHODODENDRON TOMENTOSUM.

3 LIGHT TO MOVEMENT OUTPUT IN: A)VIGNA RADIATA, B)RHODODENDRON TOMENTOSUM.

148

OUTPUT

VISUAL

PHYSICAL

+

AUDIO

LIGHT

MOVEMENT

+

ELECTRICAL SIGNALS

(PHOTOTROPISM)

COLOUR

(ELECTROCHEMISTRY)

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E X P E R I M E N TAT I O N

INPUT

INTENSITY DURATION

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[ L I FE SPAN - 500 YR, TAIGA , PART SUN, CAMERA PATH FO LLOW I NG P HOTOT RO P I S M ]

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PLANT VISION - SIBERIAN PINE

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APRIL 01

11AM

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F U LL S H A D E - LO W P H OTO SY N T H E T I C R AT E

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PA R T S H A D E - I N C R E A S I N G P H OTO SY N T H E T I C R AT E

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185

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187

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3PM

189

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[ L I FE SPAN - 1Y R, TUNDRA , FULL SUN, CAMERA PATH FO LLOWI NG P HOTOT RO P I S M ]

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PLANT VISION - FIREWEED

191

JUNE 01

7AM

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H I G H P H OTO SY N T H E T I C R AT E

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LO W P H OTO SY N T H E T I C R AT E

7PM

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[ L I FE SPAN - 5 0 0 0 YR, TREE TRUNK , PART SHADE , CA M E RA PAT H STAT I C ]

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PLANT VISION - LICHEN

201

SEPTEMBER 01

9AM

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LO W P H OTO SY N T H E T I C R AT E

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N OT E : T H I S I S W H AT W E W O U L D S E E I F P O LLU T I O N L E V E LS C O N T I N U E TO I N C R E A S E

7PM

207

208

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PROCESS

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OUTPUT

/* APDS9960 - Light Intensity and Color Sensor This example reads Light Intensity and Color data from the on-board APDS9960 sensor of the Nano 33 BLE Sense and prints the color RGB (red, green, blue) values to the Serial Monitor once a second.

The circuit: - Arduino Nano 33 BLE Sense This example code is in the public domain. */

ALGORITHMIC BY NATURE

#include <Arduino_APDS9960.h> void setup() { Serial.begin(9600); while (!Serial);

}

if (!APDS.begin()) { Serial.println(“Error initializing APDS9960 sensor.”); }

void loop() { // check if a color reading is available while (! APDS.colorAvailable()) { delay(5); } int r, g, b; // read the color APDS.readColor(r, g, b); // print the values Serial.print(“r = “); Serial.println(r); Serial.print(“g = “); Serial.println(g); Serial.print(“b = “); Serial.println(b); Serial.println();

}

212

// wait a bit before reading again delay(1000);

r = 82 g = 50 b = 67 r = 115 g = 66 b = 66 r = 19 g = 12 b = 24

OUTPUT

r = 25 g = 15 b = 12 r = 25 g = 15 b = 13 r = 18 g = 11 b = 10 r = 82 g = 50 b = 67

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r = 18 g = 12 b = 10

r = 115 g = 66 b = 66 r = 19 g = 12 b = 24 r = 18 g = 12 b = 10 r = 25 g = 15 b = 12

213

*

APDS9960 - Movement Sensor

This example reads movement data from the on-board APDS9960 sensor of the Nano 33 BLE Sense and prints any detected gestures to the Serial Monitor.

Gesture directions are as follows: - UP: from USB connector towards antenna - DOWN: from antenna towards USB connector - LEFT: from analog pins side towards digital pins side - RIGHT: from digital pins side towards analog pins side

ALGORITHMIC BY NATURE

The circuit: - Arduino Nano 33 BLE Sense This example code is in the public domain. */ #include <Arduino_APDS9960.h> void setup() { Serial.begin(9600); while (!Serial); if (!APDS.begin()) { Serial.println(“Error initializing APDS9960 sensor!”); } // for setGestureSensitivity(..) a value between 1 and 100 is required. // Higher values makes the gesture recognition more sensible but less accurate // (a wrong gesture may be detected). Lower values makes the gesture recognition // more accurate but less sensible (some gestures may be missed). // Default is 80 //APDS.setGestureSensitivity(80); Serial.println(“Detecting gestures ...”); } void loop() { if (APDS.gestureAvailable()) { // a gesture was detected, read and print to serial monitor int gesture = APDS.readGesture(); switch (gesture) { case GESTURE_UP:

214

RIGHT gesture DOWN gesture UP gesture UP gesture DOWN gesture RIGHT gesture LEFT gesture UP gesture LEFT gesture RIGHT gesture LEFT gesture DOWN gesture UP gesture DOWN gesture UP gesture DOWN gesture UP gesture DOWN gesture UP gesture LEFT gesture RIGHT gesture LEFT gesture LEFT gesture RIGHT gesture LEFT gesture RIGHT gesture DOWN gesture UP gesture UP gesture DOWN gesture RIGHT gesture LEFT gesture UP gesture LEFT gesture RIGHT gesture LEFT gesture DOWN gesture UP gesture DOWN gesture UP gesture DOWN gesture UP gesture DOWN gesture UP gesture LEFT gesture RIGHT gesture LEFT gesture LEFT gesture

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OUTPUT

Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected Detected

215

/* ReadAnalogVoltage Reads an analog input on pin 0, converts it to voltage, and prints the result to the Serial Monitor.

Graphical representation is available using Serial Plotter (Tools > Serial Plotter menu).

Attach the center pin of a potentiometer to pin A0, and the outside pins to +5V and ground.

This example code is in the public domain.

ALGORITHMIC BY NATURE

https://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/BuiltInExamples/ReadAnalogVoltage */

216

// the setup routine runs once when you press reset: void setup() { // initialize serial communication at 9600 bits per second: Serial.begin(9600); } // the loop routine runs over and over again forever: void loop() { // read the input on analog pin 0: int sensorValue = analogRead(A0); // Convert the analog reading (which goes from 0 - 1023) to a voltage (0 - 5V): float voltage = sensorValue * (5.0 / 1023.0); // print out the value you read: Serial.println(voltage); }

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OUTPUT

230 228 227 236 226 231 233 231 231 229 230 235 236 233 236 331 403 433 431 431 429 430 489 478 437 478 490 678 634 603 699 697 693 695 604 342 329 330 335 336 333 336 321 378 375 378 364 351

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218

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PROCESS

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EXPERIMENT PROCESS

- [X] 1 LM324N - [ X ] 3 1 0 0 K R E S I STO R S

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- [ X ] 3 1 0 K R E S I STO R S - [ X ] 1 1 M R E S I STO R - [ X ] 1 1 0 0 K T R I M P OT - [ X ] 1 1 M T R I M P OT - [X] CERAMIC ELECTRODES - [X] JUMPER WIRES - [X] ARDUINO UNO - [X] ARDUINO NANO SENSE - [X] OV7670 CAMERA MODULE

224

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EXPERIMENT PROCESS

Machine vision with low-cost camera m o d u l e s , h t t p s : // b l o g . a r d u i n o . cc/2020/06/24/machine-vision-withlow-cost-camera-modules/

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ELECTRICAL SIGNAL DATA TO SOUND PATCH

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EXPERIMENT PROCESS

Using open source code by Interspecifics, Pulsum Plantae, http://interspecifics.cc/ work/pulsum-plantae-2012/

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TA K I N G L I D A R S C A N

U N I T Y S PA C E A S D E S I G N TO O L

EXPERIMENT DATA

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C O LO U R = L I G H T C O LO U R + I N T E N S I T Y D I R E CT I O N A L I T Y = S U N P O S I T I O N SPEED / QUANTITY / SOUND = E L E CT R I C A L S I G N A L Q U A L I T Y / P H OTO SY N T H E T I C R AT E

su

rate n= di re

CO2 ct io na

R=66 G=65 B=86 lit y

PIXEL RESEARCH JOURNAL

so spe e d +

e th photosyn

S C R I P TS B A S E D O N E X P E R I M E N T D ATA

U N I T Y S PA C E A S D E S I G N TO O L

u n d=

tic O2

R=163 G=138 B=190

R=216 G=181 B=215

231

POINT CLOUD DATA

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F R O M M O V E M E N T D ATA

P LOT T I N G C A M E R A PAT H S

EXPERIMENT DATA

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234

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ai-programs-exhibit-racist-and-sexist-biases-

Attributes of Ourselves and Others (Durham: Duke

research-reveals> [Accessed 18 October 2020]

University Press, 2020) Dixon-Román, Ezekiel, ‘Algo-Ritmo: More-Than-Human Avanessian, Arman, Lietje Bauwens, Wouter De Raeve,

Performative Acts and the Racializing Assemblages

Markus Miessen, and Alice Haddad, Perhaps it is

of Algorithmic Architectures’, Cultural Studies ↔

high time for a xeno-architecture to match (Berlin:

Critical Methodologies, 16(5) (2016), 482–490

ALGORITHMIC BY NATURE

Sternberg Press, 2018)

Bratton,

Benjamin,

Remarks

on

the

Hole

of

Representation in Computer ‘Vision’ (2017)

Fausch,

Deborah,

and

Presence

the

Architecture’

in

‘The of

Knowledge

History-

Architecture

of

Toward and

the a

Body

Feminist

Feminism,

ed.

by Debra Coleman, Elizabeth Danze, Carol Henderson Corner, James,The Agency of Mapping: Speculation,

(New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996)

Critique and Invention (2011) Glissant, Edouard, Poetics of Relations (Michegan: Crary,

Jonathan,

Techniques

of

the

Observer,

University of Michegan Press, 1990)

(London: The MIT Press, 1992) Haraway, Donna, A Cyborg Manifesto (Minneapolis: Crawford, Kate and Trevor Paglen, ‘Excavating AI:

University of Minnesota Press, 2016)

The Politics of Training Sets for Machine Learning’ (2019) <https://excavating.ai> [Accessed 7 November

Haraway, Donna. ‘Situated Knowledges: The Science

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Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective.’ Feminist Studies, vol. 14, no. 3,

Devlin, Hannah, ‘AI programs exhibit racial and

1988

gender biases, research reveals’ (2017) <https:// www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/13/

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Haraway, Donna, Staying with the Trouble: Making

Kin in the Chthulucene (Durham: Duke University

khanacademy.org/science/biology/photosynthesis-

Press: 2016)

in-plants/the-light-dependent-reactions-ofphotosynthesis/a/light-and-photosynthetic-

Holert, Tom, Ships in Doubt and the Totality of

pigments

Possible Events, E-flux Journal 101 (2019) Machine vision with low-cost camera modules,https:// Pulsum

Plantae,

http://

blog.arduino.cc/2020/06/24/machine-vision-with-

interspecifics.cc/work/pulsum-plantae-2012/

low-cost-camera-modules/

Joler, Vladen, New Extractivism (2020)

Marder, Michael, Plant-thinking: A Philosophy of

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Vegetal Life (2013) Khan,

Nora,

Green

Light

(2019)

<

https://

brooklynrail.org/2019/03/art/Seeing-Naming-

Moore, Jason, Capitalism in the Web of Life (2015)

Knowing > [Accessed 12 November 2020] NO MAN’S LAND: THE ARCTIC AS SEEN BY A LIDAR SCANNER, Kitchin, R. The data revolution: Big data, open

https://strelkamag.com/en/article/arctic-fieldtrip

data, data infrastructures & their consequences.

(2017)

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Interspecifics,

Thousand Oaks, CA:SAGE (2014) Paglen,

Trevor,

Invisible

Images

(Your

Pictures

Chilean

Are Looking at You) (2016) <https://thenewinquiry.

Cybernetics and Chicago’s Economists. In: Matteo

com/invisible-images-your-pictures-are-looking-

Pasquinelli (Hg.): Alleys of Your Mind. Augmented

at-you/>

Lahoud,

Adrian,

Error

Correction.

Intelligence and Its Traumas. Lüneburg: meson press Parisi,

(2015)

Luciana,

Computation, Light

and

photosynthetic

pigments

https://www.

Contagious

Aesthetics,

and

Space

Architecture: (London:

The

MIT Press, 2013)

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Matteo,

Abnormal

Encephalization

in

finds-air-pollution-is-so-bad-it-s-dimming-the-

the Age of Machine Learning, E-flux Journal 75 (2016)

sun-and-slowing-tree-growth

Pasquinelli,

Szechyńska-Hebda, Magdalena, Maria Lewandowska

Matteo,

Three

Thousand

Years

of

Algorithmic Rituals: The Emergence of AI from the

and Stanisław Karpiński,

Electrical Signaling,

Computation of Space, E-flux Journal 101 (2019)

Photosynthesis and Systemic Acquired Acclimation, Frontiers in Physiology

Pick, Anna, ‘Mind over matter? AI, Feminism and

ALGORITHMIC BY NATURE

the Body’ (2019) <https://futureadvocacy.com/mindover-matter-ai-feminism-and-the-body/>

Turing, Alan, The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis

[Accessed Zylinska, Joanna, Nonhuman Photography (London:

12 November 2020]

The MIT Press, 2017) Plant Sensory Systems and Responses https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-

Zylinska, Joanna, AI ART: Machine Visions and

biology/chapter/plant-sensory-systems-and-

Warped Dreams (London: The MIT Press, 2020)

responses/ Weheliye, A. (2014). Habeas Viscus: Racializing Russell, Legacy, Glitch Feminism: A Manifesto (2020)

assemblages, theories

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Emilia,

perspectives

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Speaking

ayahuasca,

Plants animism

–

decolonial and

healing

(2019)

Shrinking Arctic Forests Linked to Legacy of Russia’s Most Polluted City

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Black

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feminist NC:

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239

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