Vivarium
Vivarium is a habitat for the study of biodigital diversification in Los Angeles, CA. Hosted by SCI-Arc for its experimental installation series, Vivarium’s objective was to construct a radicalized spatio-temporal (formal and behavioral) bridge between biology, cybernetics, media and architecture. By designing the functions of each part of the ecology to force connections by otherwise passive components – a ‘differential function’ could be tracked and instigated. Structure provided movement incentives for biology by concentrating humidity asymmetrically, biology created input functions for computer programs through basic sensors (temperature, humidity, salinity, movement) translating them into media (images and image sequences) – which in turn provided a ‘reading’ of the interior of the environment. This reading made possible for a computer processing data to make a judgment call as to whether salt or water should be added into the ecosystem – causing either extinction or overpopulation of biology.