alana aamodtInformation











 Index

Organoid Computing





an exploration of computer materiality based around a speculative future where computing happens through organic, living material 


year

2023



role

designer


contents

1_materiality + logic gates
2_materiality + interfaces 
3_final exhibition


Research QuestionIn 2022, scientists programmed lab-grown brains cells to play the 1970's video game Pong. What would a speculative future where silicon and copper are replaced with neurons and cells look like?


This project explored the materiality of computing: angular, stiff, metallic shift to soft, fleshy, and organic. How might this shift change our data? Change us as users?  



1_materiality + logic gates

Investigating AND gates, a basic form of computer logic.















  





sketch of an AND gate in their most basic form: two transistors with the current flowing through them


examples of non-electrical AND gates:















domino AND gate


crab AND gate


water AND gate









pattern:



differential to 
create flow 
+
interference
+
special property








what if the material was shifted
[to rats] ?









outcome



a rendering of a two input rat maze where where each rat must open the gate for the other rat, resulting in an outcome similar to an AND gate in a computer chip 





2_materiality + interferfaces
How does shifting the material of the interface, from keyboards and trackpads to arms and legs, affect HCI?

Pong with disembodied limbs: touching the arm triggers up and touching the leg triggers down






3_exhibition

The project culminated in an exhibition where users could become the computer interface for a drawing machine.


Behind the wall, participants became an extension of the computer through an electrified armband.  From the front side, a second participant moves the disembodied arm, controlling the drawing pad on the computer.