GMU:Non-machines/natalia gp

Through time and perception

The project consists of a series of drawings that register the constant, slow movement of the organism Physarum policephalum. Using the scientific method of documenting animal or plant species by means of drawings, the aim is to show the constant beating and growth of life which, due to our temporal perception as humans, we are unable to perceive with the naked eye. The Physarum policephalum is a good example of rapid growth in which changes can be perceived every hour, for example, but our receptor organs and our mind are not prepared to perceive this movement as if we were to see the leaf fall from a tree, the flow of a river or the movement of a person.

On this premise, the organism was observed for several days and its growth was recorded every hour, every half hour or every two days, without the observer being overly aware of the changes at the time of drawing it. However, by superimposing all the semi-transparent papers, one could see a constant motility characteristic of Physarum policephalum, a constant pulsing that drives it to move in search of food or a better habitat. This pulsation is generated by a constant contraction of a liquid that it contains in its interior and that transports nutrients and even information from the environment (chemical reactions).

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

some thoughts around physarum

The perception of the passage of time in other species or how other living things experience life, organisims which may lack brains or eyes, but which continue to grow, create and generate life and energy on this planet. Physarum Polycephalum, an organism that is somewhere in the protist kingdom, which has what they call a semi-intelligence, as it communicates between its branches and is capable of solving the labyrinths and crossroads that scientists propose to it. This is possible because it is a single-celled organism with multiple nuclei. It has a single wall that separates it from the world and inside it has a constant flow that helps it to grow and communicate through a fluid drive that carries communication and content, like a network. I would say it is a clear example of the definition of the philosophical term rhizome.

"Contrary to graphism, drawing or photography, contrary to tracings, the rhizome is related to a map that must be produced, constructed, always detachable, connectable, alterable, modifiable, with multiple entrances and exits, with its vanishing lines (...). ) Contrary to centred systems (even polycentred), of hierarchical communication and pre-established unions, the rhizome is a centred system, non-hierarchical and non-signifying, without General, without organising memory or central automaton, defined only by a circulation of states".

Rhizome: Introduction to Mille Plateaux: Capitalisme et schizophrénie, 2, G. Deleuze and F. Guattari

Physarum Policefalum and death

With this thoughts in my head I wrote one time "Life becomes fluid. Fluid like the water of a river. The only thing that keeps us stable is time. Time is the only measure within this flow, and depending on the temporality we face or in which we find ourselves, we will see the fluid, the stable or the immobile."

Fluidity here means that there is a non barrier between the physical and the non-existent where the body expands, where the body is no longer solid matter but molecule, but point of light. Beings become intangible, because things have no longer limits, they are not delimited by consciousness but arise and are in constant creation, and therefore bodies are expansive. They are rhizome.

Energy is therefore shared, matter is shared, everything is part of the same process that creates and destroys itself, a chaotic and enigmatic process that we cannot control. A constant explosion of life, with a constant and sincere rhythm, like an organic machine stretching its arms until it reaches death. That is the Physarum Polycephalum, an example of the expansion of life until its forces are exhausted.

For example, trees are in constant change, growing every second but with a different temporality that makes us not perceive this growth. For them we are flow, if the tree had eyes it would see a continuous distorted beam, just as we see the flow of water or the stars.

Capture the movement of the Physarum Polycephalum, place myself in its very perception of time. Stop time, my time, my rhythm and put myself in its place, for a while to feel its presence as my own, to stop in order to yield consciousness to another being.

I would guide my pen where the Physarum Polycephalum has passed, so many times as to register the constant movement. At the end of one drawing, I would start another one immediately, and so on until I had exhausted all my strength. It would give rise to an installation between the performative, the register, the archive and the biological. The walls of the space would be covered with these drawings.