SKINCODES

INTERACTIVE INSTALLATION IN COLLABORATION WITH DR.TOM SCHOFIELD / 2016

Skincodes is an interactive installation and artificial life experiment that investigates the extent to which computer code can exhibit lifelike behaviour. The piece consists of 68 independent electronic circuits that can transmit information to each other through subtle vibrations on a latex skin placed above them, this allows the circuits to react to each others' vibrations and to stimuli from the world. When the public touches the latex skin they insert their own signals into the system thus disrupting its normal behaviour and leaving it to reorganize in response to having made human contact. Skincodes takes inspiration from research about gene expression in skin cells when there is an immune response. We worked with dermatology researchers at Newcastle University (UK) to understand these processes and used them as inspiration for our work.

The continued observation and interaction with Skincodes gave rise to other questions which we had not originally considered: Is there a common concept of code that can be applied broadly from computation to genetics? Can a simple language arise from the communication between units through structured rules? When transmitting information through physical media to what extent are the surrounding environmental conditions and the material of the medium a part of the message? Some of these issues became as conceptually central to the project as the original aim of creating generative lifelike responses through electronic media.