The summer has been pretty interesting so far. I've worked on a couple of flash research projects, started learning Generative Components, and in a couple of weeks I am finally moving to NYC! This blog will definitely be more active when all of this moving around is finished.
I recently came across an article online about a techno/bio breakthrough. Researchers at Keio University Institute for Advanced Biosciences have developed a technique to store data in bacteria. They successful attached "e=mc2 1905" to bacillus subtilis, a common soil bacteria. This small specimen even has the ability to replicate this information which can prevent data loss.
After reading this article, the gears started turning. What we refer to as the "information age" is in constant danger of disappearing. More and more of our history and current events are being stored electronically, which is simultaneously convenient and intangible. Will humans hundreds of years from now be able to find relics of the 21st century that will allow them to understand our context? Is an unearthed hard drive going to be the next Rosetta stone, or are we doomed to be completely misunderstood should the lights go out? The ability to store and retrieve information organically is a possible answer to these questions.
Can a park, a tree, become a data-storage facility? Image: The Tree that Owns Itself.
Fantasy: Robotic Plants
But what else? The possibilities are endless, really. It blurs the boundary between the man-made and natural, between what we know and what we are. I'm awaiting the day when someone can upload mp3s into houseplants and embed family photographs inside their body.
The skin becomes a nomadic landscape of stored information: the ability to carry your photographs and memories wherever you go. Mapping Complex Emotions, J Seth Edwards 2006.
