Cryptographic Beings Kunstinstallatie by Michael Sedbon

Cryptographic Beings Kunstinstallatie by Michael Sedbon is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2023 A' Design Award in Zilver in Interactieve, Ervaringsgerichte en Immersieve Ontwerpinstallaties Competition Category.

ZilverInstallatie· 2023

Cryptographic Beings Kunstinstallatie

by Michael Sedbon

Client: Michael Sedbon

A' Design Award in Zilver Winner in Installatie Category

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Colors

The Design

About Cryptographic Beings Kunstinstallatie

Cryptographic Beings is een kunstinstallatie die digitale data opslaat in levende algen. Het werk bestaat uit dertig plantaardige bits, elk een glazen vat met draadvormige algen. Fotosynthese produceert gasblaasjes, waardoor de algen bij licht drijven en in het donker zinken. Elke drijvende of zinkende toestand vertegenwoordigt een digitale nul of één, en de installatie kan een woord van vijf letters opslaan. Gemotoriseerde robotarmen regelen het licht dat elk vat bereikt, en een op maat gemaakte kleursensor leest elke toestand af. De machine draait tijdens een tentoonstelling maandenlang autonoom.

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award in Zilver

Cryptographic Beings Kunstinstallatie is winnaar van de A' Design Award in Zilver, een buitengewoon prestigieuze erkenning die wordt toegekend aan topontwerpen die prachtig en indrukwekkend zijn. Winnaars in Zilver zijn enorm briljante en uiterst creatieve werken die de uitmuntende expertise, het talent en de scherpzinnigheid van hun ontwerpers illustreren. Cryptographic Beings Kunstinstallatie wordt verwacht een prachtig paradepaardje te zijn dat opmerkelijk professioneel en diepgaand innovatief is. Dit ontwerp dat de A' Design Award in Zilver heeft gewonnen, is een hoogst opmerkelijke, bewonderde uitvinding die baat en de grenzen van kunst, wetenschap, ontwerp en technologie verlegt. Cryptographic Beings Kunstinstallatie is een zeer benijde creatie die verlangens oproept, positieve gevoelens brengt en verbazing en verwondering doet ontvlammen.

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