Скачать или смотреть Simulacra Naturae_Generative Forms from Agent-Based Ecosystems with Organoid Collective Intelligence

by Mert Toka, Nefeli Manoudaki, Iason Paterakis, Diarmid Flatley

Simulacra Naturae is a collaborative media installation exploring the entanglement of digital morphogenesis and the interplay of biological and artificial intelligences. The title (Latin for “simulacra of nature”) references the simulacrum: a representation that distorts or replaces reality.

The installation merges computational, material, biological, and human creative agencies. At its core, brain organoids—living clusters of neurons grown in the lab—drive simulated ecologies of agents such as flocks, slime molds, and termites. These agents exhibit collective intelligence shaped by neuronal activity and interaction. Spontaneous organoid firings modulate visual, sonic, and spatial behaviors, unfolding across layered sensory outputs: generative visuals, spatial audio, living plants, and sculptural forms shaped by algorithmic growth and digital fabrication.

This mediated ecosystem invites viewers into a co-evolving space where synthetic and organic forms converge. Simulacra Natura reframes cognition and agency as distributed phenomena -emerging through entangled processes involving neurons, algorithms, organisms, and environments. In the context of Deep Cuts, the work reveals hybrid systems forming at the edge—between simulation and sensation, machine and matter, biology and code.

Scientific Team:
Kosik Neurobiology Lab (Ken Kosik, Director) Tjitse van der Molen

Support:
SBCAST (Santa Barbara Center for Art, Science, and Technology) (Alan Macy, Director)
transLAB, (Marcos Novak, Director)
UCSB MAT (Media, Arts and Technology Program @ University of California, Santa Barbara)