Xenoforms

“Xenoforms” is a robotic installation that is oriented towards an analysis of cosmotechnical pluralities that formulate conceptual suppositions of humanity, technology, and the built environment. The work comments on the implications of computational colonization and the ramifications of advanced artificial intelligence and autonomous systems in shaping, monitoring, and controlling the physical spaces we inhabit.

Xenoforms refer to machine-designed and machine-created synthetic embryos. Their form and function emerge from studies and analyses of biological parasitic organisms, and their technological apparatus expands on developments in nanotechnology, synthetic biology, and ubiquitous computing. The embryos are engineered to self-assemble and replicate, which allows them to adapt to their environment and exhibit complex behaviors that emerge through the collective reasoning of all interconnected artificially-intelligent agents.

In this instance, we view the prototypes being meticulously examined by a robotic embryologist that is tasked to ensure their vitality and status are optimum. With utmost precision, the agent methodically assesses each xenoform, awaiting the moment when they reach the required degree of maturity before their implantation procedure is initiated. As observers of this machine-directed performance, we are invited to reflect on the moment when these autonomous agents instigate a colonization process that operates with rules and conditions that are beyond human control or understanding.

The work highlights the challenges self-governed systems bring to the traditional notions of human agency in relation to technology and the world. It asks us to consider how the interplay between physical objects, biological organisms, synthetic biotechnologies, and artificially-intelligent systems is going to radically transform our tangible reality, and, further than this, define humanity to its core.