I am the seed of Plantago lanceolata. Within me, I carry a program from which my body will grow, a supporting apparatus that will serve to calculate the current version of myself and my species, and wrap it into a new seed that will sprout next year, just as I am sprouting this spring. I record information about myself, about us, and about the environment in which I grow, just as all organisms have been doing for 4 billion years. The information I recalculate year after year is me.
Machine: a device that uses energy for its work; a system transforming energy from one form to another; a device performing calculations.
Agent: a system working for someone or something, aiming to achieve a specific effect; based on perceptions from sensors and its own activity, it achieves its goals.
Every organism, throughout its life, is directed toward completing its fundamental mission – the propagation of itself and its species. This happens through strategies we call biological processes, such as metabolic activity, signal transmission, gene expression, and others. We have called these the manifestations of life.
These processes are mechanical, chemical, and ultimately computational in nature. Every living organism is wetware, a computer with computational capacity, performance, and data transfer capabilities.
Plants, as biological systems, convert resources into energy while fulfilling the agenda of survival for themselves and their species. They grow where the environment allows. They exist only if their environment exists.
They perform the computations necessary for photosynthesis, growth, flower and fruit production, cellular renewal, nutrient storage, and more. In doing so, data transfer occurs, comparable to other human-made devices.
Strojovia a agenty (Machioinds and agents) is a site-specific situation inspired by the book of the same name by Slovak mathematician Jozef Kelemen.
Dates:
Strojovia – June 22, 2024, Festival Kvantum, Podhradie
Strojovia a agenty – July 27, 2024, Kiosk 2024, Žilina
