Autopoiesis is an artificial life robotic series commissioned by the Kiasma Museum in Helsinki, Finland. It consists of fifteen musical and robotic sculptures that interact with the public and modify their behaviors based on both the presence of the participants in the exhibition and the communication between each separate sculpture. Autopoiesis is “self making”, a characteristic of all living systems. This characteristic of living systems was defined and refined by Francisco Varela and Humberto Maturana. The structures themselves are constructed of cabernet sauvignon grapevines pulled into compression with steel wires. The joints are a custom-molded urethane plastic, which is all tied together using cyanoacrylate and baking soda. The grapevines were selected to create an approachable natural sculpture that exists in the human biological realm.

This series of robotic sculptures talk with each other through a hardwired network and audible telephone tones, which are a musical language for the group. Autopoiesis breaks out of standard interfaces (mouse) and playback methodologies (CRT) and presents an interactive environment, which is immersive, detailed and able to evolve in real time by utilizing feedback and interaction from audience/participant members. The interactivity engages the viewer/participant who in turn affects the system’s evolution and emergence. This creates a system evolution as well as an overall group sculptural aesthetic.

Autopoiesis utilizes a number of unique approaches to create this complex and evolving environment. It uses smart sensor organization that senses the presence of the viewer/participant and allows the robotic sculpture to respond intelligently.

Autopoiesis continually evolves its own behaviors in response to the unique environment and viewer/partic-ipant inputs. This group consciousness of sculptural robots manifests a cybernetic ballet of experience, with the computer/machine and viewer/participant involved in a grand dance of one sensing and responding to the other.

Special Thanks to:
Amy Youngs, Dan Shellenbarger, Jesse Hemminger, Jenny Macy, Chris Gose, John Morrow , The Department of Art, and The Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art for their assistance and financial support in realizing this project.

Kenneth Rinaldo (USA) is an interdisciplinary artist and theorist who creates interactive multimedia installations that blur the boundaries between the organic and inorganic. He teaches interactive robotic sculpture, digital imaging and multimedia in the Art and Technology area of the Department of Art at the Ohio State University in Columbus Ohio. His works have been commissioned and displayed nationally and internationally and been reviewed and edited in numerous publications and books.