Behavior
“ACTinG for U” features two main components: a water system and an animation. These two components collectively create a modulated data visualization as the Arduino-driven water system communicates – via the serial port of the Arduino and Raspberry Pi – with the Python-programmed animation run on a five-node computer cluster across eight screens. The communication that occurs is periodic based on the Arduino’s sending rate – itself based on the frequency of its sensors’ updates – to one of the Raspberry Pis, which takes in the Arduino’s interpreted sensor data (from a PIR sensor, long-range ultrasonic sensor, short-range ultrasonic sensor, and a floating input on an analog pin). This interpreted sensor data results from the water system-organism’s encoded behavior – defined by metaphors of socialization, hydration, and creation (components of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs) that correspond to the colored liquids entering the tall, central vase of the system-organism (magenta, cyan, and yellow). The numeric interpretation then influences the visual output of the animation which displays each unique gene sequence in the human genome. As each nucleotide (ACGT) in the original genes are mapped into colors to assign the gene a composite color, the data received from the Arduino (three integers representing socialization, hydration, and creation) is mapped according to colors that correspond to the water system-organism’s own artificial nucleotides of its encoded biology (M, C, and Y, in reference to the colored liquids). These incoming artificial nucleotides then manipulate the original human gene sequences, changing the gene colors as long as the two systems continue to communicate.
Looking deeper into the water system-organism’s behaviors, it – affectionately named MiCKeY – is composed of three colored liquids and a main water tank representing its main body while the colors reflect internal and external inputs to MiCKeY as it responds to the surrounding and internal environments through its sensors. Its most complex behavior is its reaction to what is defined as social situations for it which it comprehends through a PIR sensor and long-range ultrasonic sensor – although that is not the limit to how it ultimately responds to socialization. The PIR sensor detects motion through infrared while the ultrasonic sensor determines the proximity of presumably another organism to itself. Four interpretations arise from the different combinations. In the case that no motion is detected, MiCKeY will negatively interpret a social interaction if the unmoving organism is close to itself because MiCKeY feels ignored by this nearby organism, but if no organisms or bodies are nearby, then MiCKeY will have a more neutral response with slight positivity as it registers these as bypassers or strangers – hence avoiding any awkward proximity. When motion is detected, the proximity of other bodies is considered very positive as MiCKeY feels involved in a social interaction, meanwhile distant bodies are interpreted negatively because it reflects a social interaction occurring that MiCKeY is not included in. These positive and negative responses affect the numeric “socialize” variable within MiCKeY’s encoding, which is mapped into a range of speeds according to the resulting value that will control how much of the magenta liquid is added into the main water body. Magenta serves as the representative color for the socialization factor by its association with concepts such as love and affection, relating it to socialization in the hierarchy of needs for an organism to live a fulfilling life.
The socialization factor is also, to a lesser degree, affected by the other sensors to extend the concept of intra-personal and intra-bodily impact of the collective of inputs (senses) and outputs (reactions) of an organism. For the most basic sustenance aspect of living, the short-range ultrasonic sensor detects the internal water level of the main water body, reflecting hydration levels (the “hydrate” variable) which is also affected by the changes in the water level from other liquid behaviors to continue the aforementioned concept. When the water level is lower, not only is the system then adding more cyan liquid to make up for this thirst, it also interprets this as a slight increase to the “socialize” variable because it is viewed as an opportunity to go out for a drink with friends in an act of socialization. In the reverse, a higher water level will indicate not being thirsty and possibly even needing to pee – resulting in a slight decrease to the “socialize” variable because of the need for a bathroom break.
The remaining factor is creative spontaneity, also within Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs at the highest tier, which is represented in this water system-organism with a floating input value taken from an unwired analog input pin on the Arduino which can have its value affected by any influx of internal and external electronic or radioactive ambience. The “create” variable gets its result from the floating input value obtained and maps the difference from a randomly-selected threshold value to count as an active spark of creativity that will add the yellow liquid for a set period of time. Because of this spontaneity, unlike the water level impact, when the spontaneous difference is a positive result, the effect on the “socialize” variable will also be randomly decided as positive or negative to a much smaller degree in both cases than even the water level impact. Similar to the “socialize” variable, the “create” variable is also affected by the other sensors based on how their aforementioned interpretations reflect time and energy – or lack of – for creative thought and practice.
This is to just discuss the regular behavior of MiCKeY, as this system-organism also experiences extreme reactions too when inputs become over- or under-whelming. With the “socialize” variable, when it accumulates an overwhelming extent of social interaction, the system has a shutdown as its social battery drains – represented by the water level draining. Likewise, when MiCKeY feels isolated from an extreme lack of social interaction, it also shuts down and drains water out of sorrow and isolation – though to a lesser extent that with social battery drain. Meanwhile, the hydration detection more straightforwardly registers extreme hydration and dehydration, draining water as though peeing or consuming much more water from a backup storage to rehydrate in the respective cases. More uniquely, the “create” variable in an extreme when the result of its floating input calculation reaches above or below the maximum or minimum thresholds for creativity, it will respectively (for a set period of time) halt all other sensor reactions and only add yellow liquid in a burst of intense creative focus or shut off its creativity sensing in a period of lacking inspiration and intensify its additions of magenta and cyan liquids to represent seeking out inspiration in socialization and taking the time to care for itself through hydration. Thus, the combination of these factors and extremities forms the water system-organism’s senses and reactions – MiCKeY’s behavior.
The three variables – socialize, hydrate, and create – thus described are the numeric data sent to the genome animation’s primary computer to influence the genes as a representation of interpersonal and societal influences and reactions, even if small, toward a cumulative being or space. Exclusive of the extreme cases when the water system-organism shuts down and cannot communicate, the sequences from the human genome are taken within the primary computer node and, as previously mentioned, have their nucleotides mapped into colors that create a cumulative color for each gene individually – which are then displayed as a colored circle in a larger grid of all of the genes. This display provides a way to see the individuality of the genes but more importantly emphasizes the collective visual effect created by thousands of small elements making up a whole – mirroring the way these genes in reality contribute individually in a pattern that forms the human dna.
After this grid is formed and displayed through parallel computing with the message passing interface (MPI) for Python, the animation cycle follows through three main displays: the gene grid, the gene selection, and the gene update. With the gene grid already described, the gene selection follows when there is incoming data from the Arduino running the water system-organism. The primary computer node randomly selects one of the genes in the grid and the rest of the computer nodes isolate this gene while emphasizing the color it has before the data is mapped. Then, the primary computer node maps the data according to their respective artificial nucleotides and those respective colors, randomly replacing a mapped number of nucleotides in the selected gene sequence directly and permanently. Once this is processed and sent to the other computer nodes, they update the color of the gene on the display. Then, the cycle repeats with the gene grid again, but now that selected gene has a new color. Although the change is a small one amongst all the genes, the genome visualization is nonetheless changing in a way that, over a longer period of time, all the small changes add up to create a hybrid genome of the water system-organism and the human genome.
The project continues this cycle of interactions as MiCKeY behaves on its own encoded existence and still has communication and interferences with the animated visualization of a modified human genome and the surrounding real physical environment full of humans and other organisms. The complex web of interaction also cannot always be guaranteed to behave in the way as described because there always exists unpredictability of life, biological or artificial, so another organism’s response and interpretation of MiCKeY and the animation also lies in how they personally register the displayed behaviors.
