Microbioespecularis

Interactive installation / artificial intelligence / dry artificial life
2023

Award: Exhibition Award, Art and Technology Competition 2025, Fondo Nacional de las Artes.

Microbioespecularis is an interactive installation that simulates a biotechnological experiment through artificial intelligence and dry artificial life algorithms. The work is presented as a projection onto a glass reactor vessel, inside which a virtual ecosystem inhabited by synthetic organisms called Bichos Mimicus can be seen.

These digital entities are part of a fictional experiment inspired by bioengineering processes, artificial life, and laboratory observation. Through an embedded camera, the system captures the faces of the people present and extracts visual information that is then translated into behavioral patterns for the projected entities. The Bichos Mimicus organize themselves collectively until they form configurations that imitate the audience’s features, generating a specular interaction in which what is observed responds to the observer.

The work reflects on the materiality of the living and on the symbiotic dimension between humans and machines. By placing the projection inside a container associated with scientific experimentation, Microbioespecularis reconfigures the imaginary of the laboratory as a space for aesthetic creation, biotechnological speculation, and technological critique.

The system articulates artificial intelligence techniques and life simulation. AI operates in the recognition and technical analysis of the interactors’ faces, while dry artificial life algorithms organize the movement, decisions, and collective behaviors of the synthetic organisms. In this interface of mutual recognition, the work explores tensions between identity, representation, and contemporary technogenesis.

The installation has approximate dimensions of 60 cm wide, 80 cm deep, and 150 cm high. It is composed of a glass reactor, metal and wood structure, laboratory materials, electronics, Arduino Mega, computer, Epson H283A projector, Logitech HD 1080p webcam, wooden enclosures for the computer, projector, and camera, and various electrical and electronic materials.

Microbioespecularis was exhibited at the Universidad Nacional de Quilmes in the exhibition Ecosistemas artísticos. Escenas e interacciones biológicas, and later at Palacio Libertad / CCK, as part of the Art and Technology Award exhibition.