ecologías

(ecologías is my contribution to the show "Unbound - Ecology in the Age of Machines" at Unit London, August 2023, consisting of 3 long form projects released on the Tezos Blockchain and 2 1/1 unbound generators released on the Ethereum blockchain, which are linked to the Tezos pieces).

ecologías is a work that reflects about the need for diversity and balance in any system. We know ecology as the relationship between species and their environment, a concept that is of paramount importance to our survival both as species and as individual beings. As humans, we have approached the subject from what we originally know: what we could call "natural" species in a "natural" environment. Not surprisingly: our current habitat faces serious challenges due to the loss of the balance that we inhabited for thousands of years. Yet it seems that large parts of our human society have trouble understanding their impact on the system they form part of. The emergence of new synthetic species gives the question some new meaning and new angles. As we witness the development of all sorts of artificial entities that will develop in ways we can't possibly understand (owing to how their version of a consciousness will take shape, probably related to their configurations and the allowances that these bring about - I wrote about these topics in this article and this other article some time ago), it becomes necessary to understand which are the new ecologies and how do we reassess our role within them. These artificial entities will bring, therefore, unseen semantics to the term diversity, as their modes of "intelligence" might be modes we can't understand - but we will have to find ways to establish relationships with them.

Sometimes it's useful to adopt a metaphor to reflect on a given topic. This work, ecologías, explores the theme of ecologies through different angles. It creates an ecology of pieces: there are 3 different projects that share some elements released on the fxhash platform on Tezos (two of them of a large edition size, one of them much shorter: ecologías A, ecologías B and ecologías C), and there are 2 pieces minted under my own contract on Ethereum (both being unique pieces: ecologías F1 and ecologías F2).

The Ethereum pieces read data from the Tezos pieces and react accordingly, establishing a metaphor for a cross-blockchain ecology. The pieces also read data from an API on the environment and climate, establishing an ecology with other entities on the digital plane of existence. Finally, the 5 pieces are set at very different price points and edition sizes, once more trying to establish an ecology of pieces typology.

ecologías A

Lines are a metaphor for the communication all species engage in. We as humans have a need to leave traces - stories - that others can read and learn from. What will be the traces machines want to leave? This piece employs sinusoidal signals drawn with lines as a simple metaphor for every trace and every language, for every message and every communication. The data generated by this entity is read by a different piece minted on Ethereum, creating a link between Tezos and Ethereum, a metaphor for an ecology of blockchains. It shares a common code element with two other works released on fxhash: ecologías B and ecologías C, all of them contributing data to aforementioned pieces.

ecologías B

Water is the medium where life first appeared in our planet. Water is also indispensable for the continuation of the life that emerged from - and with - it. The advent of AI species and their introduction into society is a new form of cambrian explosion. What is their medium? What is their water? How scarce and precious will it be for them? AI entities are not foreign to human resource necessities, though. The water that is essential to our human life will also be so for machines, as their energy still depends on our natural resources. Therefore, the ecologies of humans and machines will have, at least, the same elements as the ecologies of humans. AIs may help us reach better balances, only if we employ them to do so and if we teach them to help us.

Just as ecologías A and C, it generates data on the Tezos blockchain, read by ecologías F1 and F2 from the Ethereum blockchain.

ecologías c

Square forms and straight angles are often used to represent artificial, man-made artifacts. As machines enter into our societies - our ecologies - we may think what would be like a society of machines only. What are portraits of said machines without us humans around? Will they want to seek for their individual character, much like we do? It will depend on their personalities, their will, their intent, their traumas... their versions of all of this. We shall need to understand what their motivations will be like - what the potential basis for their potential version of a potential conscience is and how it will evolve. Only through a good understanding of diversity can we reach a functioning system. Both for ecologies with machines as well as ecologies without.

ecologías F1 and F2

Finally, the two Ethereum pieces employ different techniques: ecologías F1 is a pure code-based generative system, unbound (that is, it is the generator itself, not a single or collection of outputs). It consists of all the systems from ecologías A, B and C together, selecting one of them each time it is refreshed (or it reloads periodically generating a new output), expanding the range of the systems (that is, adding certain differences) and creating distortions based on the lack of data from the Tezos blockchain or based on climate data that shows large differences between two dates (that is, eroding climate data).

ecologías F2 employs AI / stable diffusion using 4 models trained by the artist: the first is a study of human nude where the artist photographed himself; two of them trained on artist's previous projects - Contrapuntos released on FxHash and Entretiempos released as part of ArtBlocks Curated; and a third one trained on the shared element present in all the generators created for ecologías. Using AI techniques to transform the human body into a mixture of human and generative is yet another metaphor for a new stage in the ecology that we have studied so far. Artificial species are already sharing our time and space, and their presence will probably be more notable into the future. Despite their digital origin, artificial intelligences are bound to the same exact considerations about nature, ecosystems, animal habitats, natural resources etc., since they still rely on the conditions that this planet has to offer to thrive. Thus, they too will need to understand the importance of diversity and balance.

The two Ethereum pieces include one signed physical piece, and allow the collectors to order signed physicals for up to 3 more outputs of each.

Diversity and balance are the key elements that this piece wants to reflect upon. A diversity of techniques, a diversity of blockchains, a diversity of price points, edition sizes. A diversity of media. Diversity cannot occur without balance. We are undergoing a loss of balance in global temperatures, in biodiversity, in social justice. We see time and again irate voices that ultimately create the fractures of balance that our lives are so much threatened by. In this piece, if the communication between blockchains is broken (an API that disappears, no internet connection, etc.), the pieces will become unstable. If the connection to the environment data is broken, the pieces will become unstable. There is no possible liveable world without the interactions that make it up. It took a long time for the random processes of nature to create the equilibriums that we enjoy today. We should do our part in preserving them and in creating the new balances that our times require.