VIDEO POST relaunches Soft Machine / A Natural History of Networks by Ralf Baecker, an analog/digital hybrid to speculate about a heterogeneous technological culture. It is an electrochemical algorithmic performance that probes an alternative computational and technological material regime, informed by Gordon Pask’s experiments on electrochemical learning mechanisms and current research on biomimicry, programmable matter and spatio-temporally controlled liquid metal actuators. The Soft Machine, a custom-built electrochemical experimental apparatus, creates a dynamic fluidic microcosm that performs a continuous becoming of form, structure and material narrations.
Ralf Baecker, A Natural History of Networks / SoftMachine, 2021
Credits: Concept, development, production and performance: Ralf Baecker; Assistance and videography: Julian Hespenheide; Special thanks to STATE Studio Berlin for hosting and streaming. Thanks to Ada Weller for the construction assistance
