::OBJECTS OF BIOLOGICAL INTELLIGENCE::
Gedankenexperiment and Intelligent Design
THE BLACK POD
Medium: Paper, Plaster, Acrylic, Silk and Bombyx Mori
Using conceptual and actual experiments, objects are creating and articulating the theory of Intelligent Design or, evidence of design in nature. The theory of intelligent design holds that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection. Through the study and analysis of a system's components, a design theorist is able to determine whether various natural structures are the product of chance, natural law, intelligent design, or some combination thereof. Such research is conducted by observing the types of information produced when intelligent agents act. Scientists then seek to find objects, which have those same types of informational properties, which we commonly know come from intelligence.
The objects produced during my process are constructed by intelligent biological agents (silkworms), which produce complex and specified information (CSI). The entire process of experimenting and producing these natural objects with live biological matter creates a “Wunderkasten” showing complex and specified information. By the reverse engineering of biological structures such as cocoons to see if they require all of their parts to function, was an artistic experiment. The moth still emerges after experimentation and the life cycle is not broken or destroyed. Objects for this show were created by observing natural life cycles of insects, drawing up a hypothesis on an outcome when giving these living organisms a constructed environment, and allowing the audience to step into the shoes of a scientist in order to determine the outcome.
