Bionic Ecosystem

Inspired by more-than-human perspectives and multispecies thinking, the project is situated within a framework that understands life as a network of relationships between species, in which technological systems mediate interactions between different forms of life and non-human agents.

The installation proposes technology as an interface that enables new modes of perception, interaction, and coexistence within hybrid ecological systems. The installation uses sensors connected to plants to capture variations in their electrophysiological activity. These signals are processed by custom-designed computational systems that translate the plants' responses into data streams, which in turn drive a set of autonomous robotic agents. Through machine learning processes, the robots analyse patterns in the plants' electrical activity and gradually adapt their behaviour over time.

From left to right: robot interacting through gentle touch, robot interacting through sound, and robot interacting through light.

Each robot interacts with the plants through different stimuli: some emit light, others produce sound, while others perform gentle tactile movements that softly touch the plants. These stimuli influence the plants' physiological state, altering their electrical activity.

Through this continuous exchange, a feedback loop emerges in which the robots learn from the plants' electrical behaviour, while the plants modify their signals in response to the robots' stimuli. Over the course of the exhibition, the system evolves into a dynamic ecosystem of co-adaptation between biological organisms and artificial agents.

Visitors entering the installation become part of this living network. Human presence and environmental conditions affect the plants, indirectly influencing the behaviour of the robotic system. Bionic Ecosystem proposes plants as active participants within a shared interactive environment, opening a speculative yet tangible space for imagining new forms of relationality and responsibility within a more-than-human world.