December 11, 2018
Art department professor awarded residency at Asia Cultural Center in South Korea
Submitted by Carlos Castellanos
Carlos Castellanos, assistant professor in the art department's digital/experimental media program, has been awarded a residency at the Asia Cultural Center in Gwangju, South Korea.
In partnership with the International Symposium on Electronic Art, or ISEA2019, the global residency program for media artists addresses the theme of ISEA2019, "Lux Aeterna (Eternal Light)," along with its four subthemes: "Aeternitas," "Symphonia," "Illuminatio" and "Penumbra."
The residency will focus on the development of a human-plant communication system. Along with artist and former digital/experimental media student Bello Bello, Castellanos will build a system that measures the photosynthetic and bioelectrical activity from an array of plant microbial fuel cells, or P-MFCs, and translate the data into light and sound patterns using machine learning. Bioelectricity, light, sound, CO2, photosynthesis and computational intelligence form a circuit that enhances informational linkages between human, plant, bacteria and the physical environment. This enables a mode of interaction that is experienced not just as a technologically enabled act of translation but as an embodied flow of information.
The research will culminate in a public demonstration and exhibition during the week of the festival, June 22-28, 2019.