Speculative Evolution, Prototype 1

Scientists and farmers are increasingly relying on technologies such as genetic engineering, synthetic biology, and machine learning to address the challenges of species extinction and global warming. "Speculative Evolution" imagines a speculative ecosystem 30 years from now, where artificial intelligence and biotechnologies work together to create and optimize species to withstand the increasingly hostile environment. From the perspective of an AI simulator, the audience is invited to create new variations of animals, fungi, plants, and robots, fly with these engineered and mutated species, and observe the changing ecosystem. "Speculative Evolution" responds to the trend of technology-assisted solution-making by constructing narratives of an uncomputable system under extreme control – what do we optimize, and what are we ignoring as a result? The project aims to inspect our tendency to simplify complex ecosystems by treating nature as a system that can be fixed.

The audience interacts with the installation via smartphone and navigates through a speculative 3D environment. In the exhibition space, the sound is transmitted to a sound system and the mobile display is projected onto one or multiple walls. In this experiment, the audience can use a DALL-E integration to create new animal, fungi, plant and robot variations. Through the perspective of an AI Agent, they can fly with these and the variations of all users who have installed the mobile app. The audience can observe how new creatures might look like when artificial intelligence is used to create and optimize them, and how they impact the ecosystem. They can read the abstracts of the scientific publications on which each speculative creature is based, read a prediction how it is further engendered, and inspect its lineage. The sonic sound experiences are composed for this simulation and respond to all movements and navigation modes.

Project URL
https://marclee.io/en/speculative-evolution/

Mobile App - download (free)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.marclee.Evolution

Mobile App - how to use
https://marclee.io/en/speculative-evolution/about/

Technical rider for exhibitions
https://marclee.io/var/Technical-rider-Speculative-Evolution.pdf

Award
https://marclee.io/en/speculative-evolution/#award