Exhibition: London design biennale, 2020
"i-yeasts on job: An environmental haute couture" https://www.londondesignbiennale.com/esen-g-k-e-zdamar
i-yeasts on job: An environmental haute couture
i-yeasts
on job is a fictitious graphical work between fantasy and reality, departing
from the archetypical 1920 science fiction play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal
Robots) by Karel Čapek. In the play, an army of artificial people called as
robots (derived from the word robota in Czech, meaning forced labor or slave) are produced in a factory, sold
to the world as cheap labour force. These robots serve as mechanical
workers for humans and they seem to be happy. However, they demand a
self-modification of gaining an emotional insight and things change later. At
the end of the movie, the robots rebel and kill all their creators and as well
humankind, except one of the human workers, named Alquist.
However,
this is not a great victory, because the humans had destroyed all robot
reproduction systems and factory and the robots cannot resolve how to make it
functional. They begin to die and only two of them who love each other are
later modified by Alquist to reproduce again. In this play, Čapek warns against man's misuse of science and his desire to
master life. He “also thinks about the important part of our life: work.
Contrary to the popular opinion work is an indivisible part of our life. Work
is one of our essential needs. Without work we would degenerate because we
wouldn't need to be interested in anything” (Zunt, 2014) (Figs. 1, 2, 3,
4).
Fig.
1.
Scene From R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) Play
Fig. 2. Robot Rebellion Scene from R.U.R. Play, 1921
Fig.
3.
A robot servant
(Source: http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/RUR-Capek-1920.htm#2)
Fig.
4.
Screen adaptation of the play, 1938
This
scandal revolt of robot story can be updated to our genetically modified
architecture, not for criticizing, but for extending the play in a different
level. Therefore, i-yeasts on job graphical work, pulls through effects of
post-R.U.R. syndrome and debate apart from technology versus human made world
cliché, and ascends through a traditional and romantic robot and human
interaction mutual work for a greener world.
i-yeasts
on job: Environmental haute couture
Yeasts
have been used for human benefit for many years; such as making of bread,
brewery and in generating electricity in cells. Besides their benefits, they can
have benignant use mainly in environmental problems. Artificial i-yeasts can be
created as intelligent agents for regeneration of natural damaged areas and
material regeneration, operating like prosthesis-making colonies in a
distinguishable time. Secondly, they can be used as urban agents in producing
architectural simulations and art installations.
i-yeasts on job as a self-organizing
strategy-system, consists of two components: an intelligent container and
artificial yeast based on nanotechnology. The container is made up of hard
e-textile material weaved in intelligent polymer stripes for multiple sensing
the context, similar to the technology used in smart textiles and wearable
technologies. It functions as storage for reproduction of i-yeasts, providing
energy to the system and a communication tool between i-yeasts and human
beings. And i-yeasts have ability to reproduce and form agent colonies
depending on the content of the problem defined by the system (Figs. 5, 6, 7).
Fig.
5.
i-yeasts on job, production
Fig. 6. i-yeast
container
Fig.
7.
System Mechanism
Artificial intelligent yeasts are self-thinking
workers of the system and are stored in the containers. Carrying similarities
with the genetics of natural yeasts, they are combination of natural and
artificial genes and biosensors, which rely on the logic of self-organizing
systems. They have ability to reproduce and form agent colonies. Containers and
i-yeasts sense environmental changes through biosensors and suggest formulas
for recovering the problem. Already, there are systems, which control and map
burned forest areas or the places of such potential and takes frequent
spectral, temporal and structural changes. However, this system creates a
topographical mapper of the area for the decision of the level or regeneration
or repair and along with the statistical data, the colony frequently takes
photographs of the area, which are all sent to the yeast container and to human
directed control center via satellite. i-yeast colonies, working with
operational algorithm sprawl over the coordinated area. The limit of colony sprawl
depends on the scale and degree of destruction. Imitating patterns of nature,
the colonies produce a connective tissue for natural matrix on the area and
start repairing the area with a similar tissue. On burned soil, the mapper
creates an artificial tissue similar to skin repair devices as in tissue engineering. In conditions of
uncertainty, i-yeasts decide and suggest the kind of repairing on the surface
(Figs. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12).
Fig. 8. Life Cycle of the system
Fig. 9. Sprawl and in-fill
Fig. 10. On-site installation and environment repairing
Fig. 10. On-site installation and environment repairing
Fig. 12. Army of
i-yeasts and regeneration
The system is
optimized by the combination of genetic algorithms (GA) and simulated annealing
(SA) methods used in optimization of problems. These methods are used in cases
of arbitrary functions of interrelated data and high dimensional search space
such as extreme conditions. Since the data in the environment is in a global
scale, but gathered in-situ, the system measures the limits within defined and
demanded repairing. The system gathers environmental data and provides
alternative solutions for repairing the area within human-directed control
center. This chimeral project can be suggested in urban space for experimental
form finding and art installations. The kind and content of repairing, whether
it is for environmental, or for art installation and which elements are to be
produced is autonomously haute-couture for the context.
This
both utopian and anti-utopian evolution of army of i-yeasts is the edge of a
system, which continues to evolve and can lead to irreversible invasion of the
world by robots, when combined with artificial intelligence. In this case, the situation underlines Capek’s attitude towards
technology and progress, “that all technology can prove worthless to the
mankind if it doesn't know how to use it” (Zunt, 2014).
Figure List
Fig. 1. Scene From
R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) Play, Image available at http://www.umich.edu/~engb415/literature/pontee/RUR/RURsmry.html
(Accessed April 25, 2014).
Fig. 2. Robot Rebellion
Scene from R.U.R. Play, 1921, http://www.umich.edu/~engb415/literature/pontee/RUR/RURsmry.html,
Image available at (Accessed April 25, 2014).
Fig. 3. A robot
servant, Image available at http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/RUR-Capek-1920.htm#2
(Accessed April 25, 2014).
Fig. 4. Screen
adaptation of the play, 1938, Image available at http://pocketbookuk.com/category/books/science-fiction/
(Accessed April 25, 2014).
Fig. 5. i-yeasts on
job, production
Fig. 6. i-yeast
container
Fig. 7. System
Mechanism
Fig. 8. Life cycle of
the system
Fig. 9. Sprawl and
in-fill
Fig. 10. On-site
installation and environment repairment
Fig. 11. On-site
installation and environment repairment
Fig. 12. Army of
i-yeasts and regeneration
Notes:
Zunt,
Dominik (2014). “RUR Rossum's Universal Robots play summary”, http//
capek.misto.cz/english/rur.html
(Accessed April 12, 2014).
Comments