Cryptographic Beings Installazzjoni tal-Arti by Michael Sedbon

Cryptographic Beings Installazzjoni tal-Arti by Michael Sedbon is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2023 Premju A' Design Award tal-Fidda in Disinn ta' Installazzjonijiet Competition Category.

FiddaInstallazzjoni· 2023

Cryptographic Beings Installazzjoni tal-Arti

by Michael Sedbon

Client: Michael Sedbon

Premju A' Design Award tal-Fidda Winner in Installazzjoni Category

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Colors

The Design

About Cryptographic Beings Installazzjoni tal-Arti

Cryptographic Beings hija installazzjoni tal-arti li taħżen data diġitali f'alka ħajja. Ix-xogħol jikkonsisti fi tletin bit veġetali, kull wieħed minnhom reċipjent tal-ħġieġ li fih alka filamentuża. Il-fotosintesi tipproduċi vexxikoli tal-gass, u għalhekk l-alka żżomm f'wiċċ l-ilma fid-dawl u tegħreq fid-dlam. Kull stat ta' żamma f'wiċċ l-ilma jew ta' għarqa jirrappreżenta żero jew wieħed diġitali, u l-installazzjoni tista' taħżen kelma ta' ħames ittri. Dirgħajn robotiċi motorizzati jikkontrollaw id-dawl li jilħaq kull reċipjent, u sensur tal-kulur magħmul apposta jaqra kull stat. Il-magna taħdem b'mod awtonomu għal xhur sħaħ matul wirja.

The Recognition

About the Premju A' Design Award tal-Fidda

Cryptographic Beings Installazzjoni tal-Arti huwa rebbieħ tal-Premju A' Design Award tal-Fidda, rikonoxximent prestiġjuż straordinarjament mogħti lil disinji tal-ogħla livell, sbieħ u impressjonanti. Ir-rebbieħa tal-Fidda huma xogħlijiet brillanti ħafna u kreattivi ħafna li juru l-għarfien espert, it-talent u l-aċċuratezza tad-disinjaturi tagħhom. Huwa mistenni li Cryptographic Beings Installazzjoni tal-Arti ikun xogħol mill-isbaħ, eżemplari, professjonali ħafna u innovattiv bil-fond. Dan id-disinn rebbieħ tal-Fidda huwa invenzjoni notevoli u mammirata li tikkontribwixxi biex jitwessgħu l-fruntieri tal-arti, ix-xjenza, id-disinn u t-teknoloġija. Cryptographic Beings Installazzjoni tal-Arti huwa ħolqien li ħafna jinvidjawh, li jqajjem ix-xewqat, iġib sentimenti pożittivi u joħloq tgħaġġib u mistagħġib.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: Cryptographic Beings is a technological proposal that leverages our ability to control and abstract biology to perform digital information storage.

Marimos are large spherical colonies of algea.

Photosynthetic activity produces gas vesicles visible to the naked eye
This property allows them to float when exposed to light and sink in the dark

This property is used to store digital data: The floating or sinking state representing digital 0s or 1s
This robotic setup is capable of storing a 5 letter word
Dimensions & Packaging: Width : 60 cm
height : 300 cm
Depth : 60 cm
Weight : 300 Kg
Tags: Artificial Living Intelligence, Synthetic Biology, Bio-Hybrid Computers, Living Machines, New Media Art, Robotic
Production Technology: This work was developed as part of an ongoing research project on bio-hybrid computation exploring the possible morpho-space of computing devices. Michael Sedbon questions the information-processing properties of living matter through the creation of novel technologies embed into sculptural artefacts.
This work has been developed as a functional prototype of a digital data storage device on vegetal media. It uses living algae, custom electronic and software code to store information.
Design Challenge: Cryptographic being is both a technological and an artistic proposal. The technology used to store digital information in vegetal media is a pure creation for this work. During its development, numerous technical challenges such as the design of custom sensors and engineered mechanical parts had to be overcome.
As an artistic project, it also had to communicate its (highly technical) subject in an understandable manner. Great care was placed in rendering biological processes visible.
Research: Living organisms perceive and interact with their environment through computation. Recent advances in the life sciences allow researchers and designers to envision machines of new kinds that leverage the massive and specific capacities of living matter in computing.
How would these bio-hybrid machines change our perception of nature and culture, what can be used to compute, what can be computed and what form will they take? These are the question this work approach.
Inspiration: The first part of the 20th century witnessed simultaneously the discovery of the basis of information storage in DNA and the revolutions of the modern computing era.

Since then, the fields of computer science and modern biology have co-evolved in a conceptual framework that looks at life as an information processing system and at digital computations as Intelligence.

This cultural relationship is allowing us to design new kinds of bio-hybrid computers leveraging the massive capacity of life.
Project Duration: The project was conceptualised and prototyped in summer 2021. The production occurred from September 2021 to March 2022. This work was shown at Au Dela Des Pixel, a digital art exhibition curated and organised by 36 Degres, in March 2022 in Paris.
Operation Flow: This autonomous machine consists of an array of 30 vegetal bits made of filamentous algae held in glass vessels. The control of the information flow is handled by a set of specifically developed robotic arms that control photosynthetic processes in each of the bits. The state of each bit (the digital information) is retrieved by a custom-made device based on a colour sensor.
The machine is designed to run autonomously for months throughout an exhibition.
Team Members: Michael Sedbon