Stefan Kainbacher. Trialogue: Holobiont Habitat – Chapter 1. Decode

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Trialogue: Holobiont Habitat – Chapter 1: Decode is an immersive audiovisual installation about the possibilities and limits of communication between biological and technical actors. At the centre of the art space stand eight black 19-inch server racks, arranged in a circle like a technological Stonehenge. The racks form the habitat of a hybrid organism, in which plants, sensors, computers, artificial intelligence and audiovisual systems are interconnected. Each rack houses living plants, full-spectrum grow lights, speakers and various technical components. Network cables, power lines and hoses from an automated irrigation system connect the individual units into a shared cycle. The technical infrastructure remains deliberately visible and becomes part of the spatial composition. The plants are continuously recorded by various sensors. The focus is on measuring bioelectrical signals using Plant-SpikerBox systems, supplemented by environmental and climate data. Four of the test stations also have camera systems that allow the plants to be observed visually. The collected data is processed by a locally operated multi-agent system. The AI agents analyse patterns of electrical activity, image data and environmental parameters and try to identify connections, states and recurring patterns in the plants’ behaviour. The installation does not present this process as a solved problem, but as an ongoing attempt at machine-based approximation of a non-human form of communication. The work sees itself as an artistic research setting: the AI does not try to control plants, but to understand them. The actual subject of the work is therefore less the plant itself than the question of how technical systems create meaning and what limits they face. Trialogue: Holobiont Habitat – Chapter 1: Decode marks the first part of an ongoing series of works. While this chapter focuses on the question of deciphering biological signals, future chapters examine further forms of interaction, translation and coexistence between human and non-human actors.