Sounds are used by many creatures to communicate and share knowledge of internal and external states.

The talking between cells is what constitutes the organisation in larger groups of creatures and living beings. Sometimes a central brain is not present to oversee the organisation of the collective that is comprised by a big number of individuals. In stead the origin of logic stems from local decision making. In swarms of insects, flocking of birds or shoals of fish, the fundamental mechanism are based on simple rules that by the larger number of individuals creates these fascinating and complex patterns of movement.

The discrete ensemble explores the social communication and internal local decision making through sound as the primary medium.

The living forms and intrarelations

The work is inspired by Stephen Wolframs concept of cellular automata that demonstrates how simple rules can form surprisingly complex patterns and behaviour. Though decentralised logic placed at the level of the individual, a new overall behaviour linked to the whole cluster of multiple individuals emerges. With his New Kind of Science Wolfram suggests that all life is based in these fundamental mechanisms. This leaves little room for the idea, that the human species is exceptional to other species i.e. in relation to intelligence, creativity and emotional capabilities.

I am curious to question the boarders we set up in order to define life forms and entities and distinguish between them. Can we unlearn cultural habits of hierarchy of life form and matter?

Looking at, mimicikng, and translating specific human or more-than-human features to other creatures, biological and non-biological bodies, animals and machines, enable us to realise the commonalities between living bodies of varied forms and leave the realm of human exceptionalism. I do this by creating an artificial creature that lends different elements from several material forms and living beings.

The Discrete Ensemble is inspired by Felix Hess’ use of sound to mimick certain features of aliveness. Felix Hess was inspired by the beautiful sound of frogs and their shy behaviour. Utilising these principles he created frog self-organising systems and moving sound creatures.

Visitors reactions and coments

From the visitors reactions at the prototype exhibition, I learned that the artificial creature does trigger different associations such as computational network communication, and crickets. The closer you come the more richly you hear the ensemble and in this way the the work becomes quite intimate. As a consequence of the sound sources’ directionality within the cylinder form, the visitors investigated the sounds more carefully and noted the slight discreetness between each cell. As the sounds are quite gentle in volume, they would easily blend in and out if the sounds in the external space, disappearing and appearing over time. It created a feeling of secrecy, shyness, humbleness and challenges the listener to listen closer and more attentively.