The Synthenesis project imagines ascenario in which, in the near future, people will be able to grow Spirulinaalgae as their food supply and use it in their daily spaces and rituals, livingmachines that will help synthesise.

Synthenesis is also a living machine, anartwork installation which depicts a hybrid organ of human and non-human bodyand resembling the two body’s brains, cerebral and intestinal, developingsynthetic and edible Spirulina pearls through a spherification chemicalreaction; a process borrowed from the molecular gastronomy which encloses aliquid in a gel membrane of sodium alginate and calcium chloride.

The project questions what we can do toshape the future remarking topics of care, decision making and empowerment. Synthenesis aims to improve homan beings’ nutrition and mental healthquestioning how living machines can be built to grow Super-Food and produceman-made pills? How can they be integrated to into our spaces and rituals?

The living machine Synthenesis ismanufactured combined DIY biology with 3D printing,  glass flame and soft robots, talking aboutthe values of future society and remarking the relationship between humanbeings, nature end technology. It is a living entity where motors work togetherto keep the algae culture alive, processing a the same time a shperificationprocess by producing spirulina pills. The machine adopts a molecular gastronomyprocess which encases a liquid in a gel membrane using sodium alginate,spirulina algae and calcium chloride. When a mix of sodium alginate andspirulina meet the calcium liquid solution, a chemical reaction is activatedforming little spheres by trapping the spirulina-alginate liquid inside.

After some minutes the calcium creates anouter layer form the alginate forming a thin, flexible and edible skin. DIYbiology is takes in consideration by giving the possibility to produce inautonomy some pills, simple repeating the protocol and imitating the processactivated by the Syntheneis machine.

Synthenesis has been developed also as participative workshop which explores how a DIY aquaculture bioreactor can be beuilt to grow Spirulina microalgae and produce artificial pills. The all research and artistic production has been supported by Tilling Roots and Seeds, an international cooperation project between Ars Electronica (AT), KILOWATT (IT), University of Barcelona (ES) and Quo Artis (ES) as lead partner and co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.

A Living Machine which embraces otherness 

The work embodies a ‘cyborg’ identity through the philosophical work of Donna Haraway about human-machine and human-animal relations, presenting as a living machine which exists through the coexistence of separated entities and their interactions, the sharing of information between organic and inorganic matter, living and non-living entities. Synthenesis embraces the idea that living machines in art and design extend to other forms of intelligence by mimicking, employing, and drawing attention to more-than-human as neglected companions. Therefore, it represents a new materialism by employing a post-humanist aesthetic where bodies and identities are of undefined origins and livingness takes form under a speculative lens, merging human and non-human as part of a feminist posthumanist discourse. Bringing livingness to its centre through a breathing body, it becomes a symbol that unites all species, as an holistic practice helping to be present and aware of life at the planetary scale. By seeing a body active in its breathing, we feel tuned with that existence and movement as part of a bigger community.     

This livingness in Synthenesis embodies what Haraway explains as ‘not a dream of communities on the model of the organic family but rather encourages a plasticity of identity to highlight the socially imposed limitations’ (1991), contributing to developing a posthuman coexistence. In this sense, Synthenesis expresses this cyborg identity, rejecting rigid boundaries, notably those separating ‘human’ from ‘animal’ from ‘machine’. Ultimately, as Haraway writes ‘the cyborg does not dream of community on the model of the organic family…the cyborg would not recognize the Garden of Eden; it is not made of mud and cannot dream of returning to dust.” Challenging the traditional notions of feminism, encouraging colations through affinity, to a plasticity of identity and to highlight the socially imposed limitations.