Networked Ecosystem, 2021
Live simulation online environment
Infinite duration
Collaborative work by Mark Ramos and Ziyang Wu
https://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/view/further-experiments-in-art-technology
Networked Ecosystem is a live-simulation environment that presents an ecosystem built of a variety of digital senses. Commissioned by NEW INC, Rhizome and Nokia Bell Labs, Networked Ecosystem takes machine vision and sensing data collected by Bell Lab’s experimental robots and sensors and repurposes it to drive a 3D environmental simulation.
In Networked Ecosystem, natural phenomena have been replaced by digital and artificial systems as forces that drive development: Electricity/battery = sustenance, WIFI signals = nutrition, Lidar data = fire/heat. Data Organisms populate this digital ecosystem as native life forms in the form of bots, AI’s, and avatars. Visitors to this networked landscape develop new kinds of digital senses to experience data as environmental changes, and interact with the simulated world and each other in an ever-changing online environment.
Networked Ecosystem was originally presented as a playable simulation as part of Rhizome x New Museum First Look.
Since then the piece has been ported to a physical, interactive simulation at the Ming Contemporary Museum of Art in Shanghai.
And, an AR piece with Ali Baba cloud presented at the Song Art Museum in Beijing.