Presented by Balázs Kovács on Simultan festival in Timișoara, 11/10/2019.

1. Preparing for post-human
audience:
a digital artwork
survival toolkit

2. Preparing for post-human
audience:
a digital artwork
survival toolkit
“Even today, two millennia after the collapse of the
Roman and Mayan empires and one millennium after
the end of the Byzantine and Inca empires,
historians, archaeologists, and synthetic-failure
paleoanalysts have been unable to agree on the
primary causes of those societies’ loss of population,
power, stability, and identity. The case of Western
civilization is different because the consequences of
its actions were not only predictable, but predicted.
[...]
While analysts differ on the exact circumstances,
virtually all agree that the people of Western
civilization knew what was happening to them but
were unable to stop it.”
(Naomi Oreske & Erik M. Conway, ca. 2300 AD)

3. Preparing for post-human
audience:
a digital artwork
survival toolkit
1) textkit
2) toolkit
3) examples

4. But even though it is not possible, at present at any rate, to do much to improve the quality of the human
stock by eugenic means, it is interesting and profitable to consider what would be the result if socially
undesirable types could be eliminated entirely or in large part . . . . [But] it is evident, in the first place,
that it is inconceivable that human nature could be changed to the extent that is contemplated by [the]
theory of perfectibility. Such changes would bring into being an animal no longer human, or for that
matter mammalian, in its character, for it would involve the elimination of such fundamental human and
mammalian instincts and emotions as anger, jealousy, fear, etc. But even if such a post-human animal
did come into existence, it is difficult to believe that it could carry on the necessary economic activities
without using a certain amount of formal organization, compulsion, etc.
Maurice Parmelee’s 1916 Poverty and Social Progress
1) textkit
Prewhat means post-human?

5. The physics of virtual writing illustrates how our perceptions change when we work with computers on a
daily basis. We do not need to have software sockets inserted into our heads to become cyborgs. We
already are cyborgs in the sense that we experience, through the integration of our bodily perceptions
and motions with computer architectures and topologies, a changed sense of subjectivity.
N. Katherine Hayles’ 1999 How We Became Posthuman?

6. What is the posthuman? Think of it as a point of view characterized by the following assumptions. (I do
not mean this list to be exclusive or definitive. Rather, it names elements found at a variety of sites. It is
meant to be suggestive rather than prescriptive). First, the posthuman view privileges informational
pattern over material instantiation, so that embodiment in a biological substrate is seen as an accident of
history rather than an inevitability of life. Second, the posthuman view considers consciousness,
regarded as the seat of human identity in the Western tradition long before Descartes thought he was a
mind thinking, as an epiphenomenon, as an evolutionary upstart trying to claim that it is the whole show
when in actuality it is only a minor sideshow. Third, the posthuman view thinks of the body as the
original prosthesis we all learn to manipulate, so that extending or replacing the body with other
prostheses becomes a continuation of a process that began before we were born. Fourth, and most
important, by these and other means, the posthuman view configures human being so that it can be
seamlessly articulated with intelligent machines. In the posthuman, there are no essential differences or
absolute demarcations between bodily existence and computer simulation, cybernetic mechanism and
biological organism, robot teleology and human goals.
N. Katherine Hayles’ 1999 How We Became Posthuman? pp. 2-3.

7. What is the posthuman? Think of it as a point of view characterized by the following assumptions. (I do
not mean this list to be exclusive or definitive. Rather, it names elements found at a variety of sites. It is
meant to be suggestive rather than prescriptive). First, the posthuman view privileges informational
pattern over material instantiation, so that embodiment in a biological substrate is seen as an accident of
history rather than an inevitability of life. Second, the posthuman view considers consciousness,
regarded as the seat of human identity in the Western tradition long before Descartes thought he was a
mind thinking, as an epiphenomenon, as an evolutionary upstart trying to claim that it is the whole show
when in actuality it is only a minor sideshow. Third, the posthuman view thinks of the body as the
original prosthesis we all learn to manipulate, so that extending or replacing the body with other
prostheses becomes a continuation of a process that began before we were born. Fourth, and most
important, by these and other means, the posthuman view configures human being so that it can be
seamlessly articulated with intelligent machines. In the posthuman, there are no essential differences or
absolute demarcations between bodily existence and computer simulation, cybernetic mechanism and
biological organism, robot teleology and human goals.
N. Katherine Hayles’ 1999 How We Became Posthuman? pp. 2-3.

8. What is the posthuman? Think of it as a point of view characterized by the following assumptions. (I do
not mean this list to be exclusive or definitive. Rather, it names elements found at a variety of sites. It is
meant to be suggestive rather than prescriptive). First, the posthuman view privileges informational
pattern over material instantiation, so that embodiment in a biological substrate is seen as an accident of
history rather than an inevitability of life. Second, the posthuman view considers consciousness,
regarded as the seat of human identity in the Western tradition long before Descartes thought he was a
mind thinking, as an epiphenomenon, as an evolutionary upstart trying to claim that it is the whole show
when in actuality it is only a minor sideshow. Third, the posthuman view thinks of the body as the
original prosthesis we all learn to manipulate, so that extending or replacing the body with other
prostheses becomes a continuation of a process that began before we were born. Fourth, and most
important, by these and other means, the posthuman view configures human being so that it can be
seamlessly articulated with intelligent machines. In the posthuman, there are no essential differences or
absolute demarcations between bodily existence and computer simulation, cybernetic mechanism and
biological organism, robot teleology and human goals.
N. Katherine Hayles’ 1999 How We Became Posthuman? pp. 2-3.

9. What is the posthuman? Think of it as a point of view characterized by the following assumptions. (I do
not mean this list to be exclusive or definitive. Rather, it names elements found at a variety of sites. It is
meant to be suggestive rather than prescriptive). First, the posthuman view privileges informational
pattern over material instantiation, so that embodiment in a biological substrate is seen as an accident of
history rather than an inevitability of life. Second, the posthuman view considers consciousness,
regarded as the seat of human identity in the Western tradition long before Descartes thought he was a
mind thinking, as an epiphenomenon, as an evolutionary upstart trying to claim that it is the whole show
when in actuality it is only a minor sideshow. Third, the posthuman view thinks of the body as the
original prosthesis we all learn to manipulate, so that extending or replacing the body with other
prostheses becomes a continuation of a process that began before we were born. Fourth, and most
important, by these and other means, the posthuman view configures human being so that it can be
seamlessly articulated with intelligent machines. In the posthuman, there are no essential differences or
absolute demarcations between bodily existence and computer simulation, cybernetic mechanism and
biological organism, robot teleology and human goals.
N. Katherine Hayles’ 1999 How We Became Posthuman? pp. 2-3.

10. [A] human war…leave[s] behind it a devastated human world, dehumanized, but with nonetheless at
least a single survivor, someone to tell the story of what’s left, to write it down . . . . But in what remains
after the solar explosion, there won’t be any humanness, there won’t be living creatures, there won’t be
intelligent, sensitive, sentient earthlings to bear witness to it, since they and their earthly horizon will
have been consumed.
J-F. Lyotard’s 2003 The Inhumane? Reflections on Time

11. [A] human war…leave[s] behind it a devastated human world, dehumanized, but with nonetheless at
least a single survivor, someone to tell the story of what’s left, to write it down . . . . But in what remains
after the solar explosion, there won’t be any humanness, there won’t be living creatures, there won’t be
intelligent, sensitive, sentient earthlings to bear witness to it, since they and their earthly horizon will
have been consumed.
J-F. Lyotard’s 2003 The Inhumane? Reflections on Time
Lyotard suggests that we must make way for the coming of the post-human. “What is at stake in every
field” from genetics to particle physics is “how to make thought without a body possible . . . . That clearly
means finding for the ‘body’ a ‘nutrient’ that owes nothing to the biochemical components synthesized
on the surface of the earth through the use of solar energy.
The post-human is not a half-man, half-robot: he has no attachment to the earth whatsoever.
https://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/mediatheory/keywords/posthuman/

12. [A] human war…leave[s] behind it a devastated human world, dehumanized, but with nonetheless at
least a single survivor, someone to tell the story of what’s left, to write it down . . . . But in what remains
after the solar explosion, there won’t be any humanness, there won’t be living creatures, there won’t be
intelligent, sensitive, sentient earthlings to bear witness to it, since they and their earthly horizon will
have been consumed.
J-F. Lyotard’s 2003 The Inhumane? Reflections on Time
Lyotard suggests that we must make way for the coming of the post-human. “What is at stake in every
field” from genetics to particle physics is “how to make thought without a body possible . . . . That clearly
means finding for the ‘body’ a ‘nutrient’ that owes nothing to the biochemical components synthesized
on the surface of the earth through the use of solar energy.
The post-human is not a half-man, half-robot: he has no attachment to the earth whatsoever.
https://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/mediatheory/keywords/posthuman/

13. Post-civilization [...]
It’s about the permaculturalist who collects camera lenses to build solar cookers. It’s about the
living food-forests that we’ll turn our towns into. It’s about never laboring again. (In this case, we are
defining labor as “unnecessary, un-enjoyable work”). Frankly, it’s about destroying civilization and
saving the world and living a life of adventure and fulfillment.
http://www.tangledwilderness.org/pdfs/post-civ-web.pdf

14. Post-civilization [...]
It’s about the permaculturalist who collects camera lenses to build solar cookers. It’s about the
living food-forests that we’ll turn our towns into. It’s about never laboring again. (In this case, we are
defining labor as “unnecessary, un-enjoyable work”). Frankly, it’s about destroying civilization and
saving the world and living a life of adventure and fulfillment.
We’re not primitivists: primitivists reject technology. We reject the inappropriate use of
technology. Primitivists reject agriculture: we’re not afraid of horticulture, but we reject monoculture
(and other stupid methods of feeding ourselves, like setting 6 billion people loose in the woods to hunt
and gather). Primitivists reject science. We just refuse to worship it.
http://www.tangledwilderness.org/pdfs/post-civ-web.pdf

15. What We’re For:
It’s like recycling, but for everything! Bottles and houses and ideas alike! [...]
We cannot help but look forward to civilization’s end, whether it be slow and withering or quick
and catastrophic. We look forward to rebuilding and repairing some houses and we look forward
to razing others. We are for incorporating some models of organization and abandoning others,
reacting to our circumstances.
In the here and now, we learn survival skills: skinning and tanning and wire-stripping, archery
and gunpowder-making. Herbalism, acupuncture, yes, but we also study the application of antibiotics
(used with restraint!). We permaculture and we rewild and we scavenge the urban and rural landscapes
alike, learning what it is to be sustainable in a dying world. We tear up our lawns and leave only
gardens. One day, we’re going to tear up the pavement [...] and leave only bike paths.
And, you know what? We’re not afraid of a little specialization. Skills like food growing and distribution
are shared, but it’s a good thing that some people study lens grinding while others study wheelchair
repair.
There are enough things already made to enable a non-growth-based economy to last for a pretty
long time. There are plenty of bike frames and tin roofs and shoes and chairs and ball bearings: we’ll
never need a factory-line again. The metal is already mined... we just need to dig it out of the junkyards
and junkfood stores and put it to more creative use.
We are for an ecologically-focused green anarchism and we are for mutual aid, free association, and
self-determination.
http://www.tangledwilderness.org/pdfs/post-civ-web.pdf

16. Post-scarcity is a theoretical economic situation in which most goods can be produced in great
abundance with minimal human labor needed, so that they become available to all very cheaply or even
freely.
[~] robotics
[~] rapid prototyping
[~] lack of raw materials and energy -> looking beyond Earth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-scarcity_economy

17. Post-scarcity is a theoretical economic situation in which most goods can be produced in great
abundance with minimal human labor needed, so that they become available to all very cheaply or even
freely.
[~] robotics
[~] rapid prototyping
[~] lack of raw materials and energy -> looking beyond Earth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-scarcity_economy
!!!
In the long run, making programs free is a step toward the post-scarcity world, where nobody will have
to work very hard just to make a living. People will be free to devote themselves to activities that are fun,
such as programming, after spending the necessary ten hours a week on required tasks such as
legislation, family counseling, robot repair and asteroid prospecting. There will be no need to be able to
make a living from programming.
Charles Barbour’s 2012 book The Marx Machine: Politics, Polemics, Ideology
cited by Wikipedia

18. Automation:
Transition from labor-for-income emphasis to machine automation emphasis. Goals: Maximize
productive capacity; reduce human exposure; increase efficiency.
Access:
Transition from property/ownership emphasis to strategic access emphasis. Goals: Maximize good use-
time efficiency; reduce production pressure; increase overall good availability for use.
Open Source:
Transition from proprietary research, data hoarding, and internal development to collaborative commons
contribution. Goal: Maximize innovation.
Localization:
Transition from globalization to localization, emphasizing networked design. Goals: Maximize
productive/distributive efficiency; reduce waste.
Networked Digital Feedback:
Transition from fragmented economic data relay to fully integrated, sensor-based digital systems. Goals:
Maximize feedback and information e cacy/utilization; increase total economic efficiency.
Peter Joseph’s 2017 book The New Human Rights Movement: Reinventing the Economy to End
Oppression, pp.265

19. What I’m looking for is something between anti-civilizational and post-scarcity economics.

20. What I’m looking for is something between anti-civilizational and post-scarcity economics.
[+] from both:
rationality, optimised consumption
[+] from anti-civilizational:
technology-oriented: recycling it into primitive processes
reduced production
rural-typed, local, cooperative, real, nature-oriented
[+] from post-scarcity economics:
sharing goods and needs
local-oriented
open sourcing, DiY-typed, keeping carbon neutral infrastructure alive
[-] from post-scarcity:
distopy of communism and matrix
robotic vs. hand-made
[-] from both:
no plans for re-production of minimal infrastructure
no plans agains anarchy and dictatoric tendencies
no plans agains human behaviour

21. It is not enough to imagine a world that has streamlined its economic system to maximize the
reduction of scarcity and the reduction of socioeconomic inequality. We must also imagine a
state of social maturity that recognizes the true natural limits to human existence.
Peter Joseph’s 2017 book The New Human Rights Movement: Reinventing the Economy to End
Oppression, pp.225

22. ?? ?? ??? ?????? ?? ??????? ? ????? ???? ??? ??????????? ??? ???????? ?????? ??
???????? ??? ????????? ?? ???????? ??? ??? ????????? ?? ????????????? ??????????.
?? ???? ???? ??????? ? ????? ?? ?????? ???????? ???? ?????????? ??? ???? ???????
?????? ?? ????? ?????????.
let’s discuss it!
questions:
- world without humans?
- world with humans?
- mixing/reducing technology with pre-industrial lifeforms?
- how could we really be prepared for the anti-civilization?
- how could we leave our digital culture and science in a readable
format for the unknown?
pre-concept of a mental/virtual/digital phenomena to cause physical
phenomena

23. 1) textkit
2) toolkit
3) examples
a digital artwork
survival toolkit

24. what kind of needs has
a digital artwork
?

25. what kind of needs has
a digital artwork
?
at least:
storage - to store
cpu - to process
interface - to interact
power - to run
optionally:
network - to spread

26. what kind of needs has
a digital artwork
?
at least:
storage - to store
cpu - to process
interface - to interact
power - to run
optionally:
network - to spread
which material
survive everything
?

27. what kind of needs has
a digital artwork
?
at least:
storage - to store
cpu - to process
interface - to interact
power - to run
optionally:
network - to spread
which material
survive (almost) everything
?
stone, concrete
plastic!
living tree?
low-level biosphere
solid-state electronics (???)
...

28. contents of the
digital artwork
survival toolkit

29. contents of the
digital artwork
survival toolkit
power source
hand-cranked generator 2.7-30V
6V solar panel 0.6W

30. contents of the
digital artwork
survival toolkit
optional
power storage
1000µF 25v capacitors
waterproof solar power bank

31. contents of the
digital artwork
survival toolkit
interface
silver micro 300 solar motor 3-5V
DC vibrator motor 3-7.5V

32. contents of the
digital artwork
survival toolkit
storage
cpu
interface
kebidu mp3 decoder + amplifier
arduino w/ nano servo motors
and optional arduino motor
shield

33. contents of the
digital artwork
survival toolkit
storage
cpu
interface
Raspberry PI Zero W

34. contents of the
digital artwork
survival toolkit
cpu
interface
network
PAM8610 class D amplifier 2x15w

35. contents of the
digital artwork
survival toolkit
storage
cpu
interface
power
&
network

36. 1) textkit
2) toolkit
3) examples
- off-the-grid experiments
- hybrids of technology and
natural entities; symbiosis
- data -> real-world object (as
mental->physical)

37. off-the-grid experiments • solar player

38. off-the-grid experiments • solar player

39. off-the-grid experiments • Postworldlitzer (2018)

40. technology-in-nature experiments • Broken dishes orchestra

41. technology-in-nature experiments • Broken dishes orchestra

42. hybrids • Ferenc Vincze & Márton Kelemen: Flower (2018)

43. hybrids • Harpreet Sareen & Pattle Maes: Elowan (2018-)

44. hybrids • Harpreet Sareen & Pattle Maes: Elowan (2018-)
About Cyborg Botany
Cyborg Botany is a new, convergent view of interaction design in
nature. Our primary means of sensing and display interactions in the
environment are through our artificial electronics. However, there are
a plethora of such capabilities that already exist in nature. Plants, for
example, are active signal networks that are self-powered, self-
fabricating, and self-regenerating systems at scale. They have the
best kind of capabilities that an electronic device could carry. Instead
of building completely discrete systems, the new paradigm points
toward using the capabilities that exist in plants (and nature at large)
and creating hybrids with our digital world.
Elowan, the robot plant hybrid, is one in a series of such of plant-
electronic hybrid experiments.
https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/elowan-a-plant-robot-
hybrid/overview/

45. hybrids • Harpreet Sareen: Cyborg botany (2018-)

46. hybrids • Bálint Bori: Cicadas

47. hybrids • Ralf Schreiber: Creatures

48. hybrids • Scott Smallwood: Objects
by Máté Labus

49. hybrids • Abigél Bánházi: Ecopets (2018-)

50. hybrids • RoboBees (Yufeng Chen et al., 2019)
http://www.rle.mit.edu/smrl/

51. hybrids • power plants
?

52. data->object • Aram Bartholl: Deaddrops (2010-)

53. data->object • Varvara & Mar: Data Shop (2017)

54. data->object • iszalag.net
(2017-18)

55. sum
data/virtual -> physical object
going to be a natural-human ‘biorg’

56. sum
data/virtual -> physical object
going to be a natural-human ‘biorg’
recommended virtual places:
https://robohub.org/
http://www.neural.it/
https://www.facebook.com/hangfarm/
https://robotart.org/

57. sum
data/virtual -> physical object
going to be a natural-human ‘biorg’
recommended virtual places:
https://robohub.org/
http://www.neural.it/
https://www.facebook.com/hangfarm/
https://robotart.org/
contact:
balazs.kovacs@pte.hu