Technology Recapitulates Phylogeny

Technology Recapitulates Phylogeny
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Technology Recapitulates Phylogeny
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Technology Recapitulates Phylogeny
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Technology Recapitulates Phylogeny
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As you approach this piece a sensor turns a light on which projects the worms and tree forms onto the walls and ceiling. The tubefex worms which are the stars of this piece demonstrate a form of supra organization in which these single tubefex worms act together to form a group consciousness of thousands of worms. The gaggle sends out exploratory tentacles projecting from the edge of undulating masses which resemble magnified striated muscle cells. These collective fingers project over the edge of the plate and back into other writhing masses. If you touch one worm in a bunch the whole mass contracts like a flinching muscle. Five and six clumps will form in a dish like mini sea anemones, and when one swarm reacts the few worms that are invariably touching the other clumps contract and soon the whole plate has exploded with worms heading off every direction; a kind of primitive escape mode. Soon the worms have collected together again to act as a single creature.

The roots, worms, and circuit boards in this work point to the all pervasive tree structure as a most efficient matter, energy and information distribution network. Tree structures are forms that recur consistantly in organic and inorganic systems alike. They may appear as fingers of rivers, cracks in rocks, branches of roots, snowflakes, cytoskeletons, braincells, clumps of worms, circuit boards, and very large scale integrated circuits (VLSI), and internet connection networks.
Kenneth E. Rinaldo