Humatker

• 2021

Humatker is a hybrid sculpture and installation which combines three entities that embodies the cohabitation regime of our time: one biological, one software and one synthetic. It takes the shape of a human 3D-printed spine that let an intriguing organism grow: the Physarum Polycephalum. Commonly defined as 'blob', it colonizes each one of the vertebra. As it explores its environment, the blob follows an implacable and efficient logic to survive. It traces a path that obeys to implicit rules and reveals a complex network whose numerous ramifications depict an extensive and intelligent cartographic system.

The spine integrates electronic contacts. When the physarum touches them, it triggers a set of generative patterns that are programmed to output a sound voice, a modulated mantra. This latter is transformed and agenced as far as the Physarum expands on the sculpture. The sound becomes an everchanging healing mantra whose scansions and singings endlessly evolve.

Humatker is inspired by oriental healing systems that include a strong relationship with invisible forces and the seeking of universal balance. The traditional Chinese medicine, considers the body and health according to specific poles that group physical, physiological, environmental, spiritual, and energetic properties. Therefore, we make the following analogy. The physarum is a means to cure diseases, mapped and located on the spine, like a doctor or an osteopath would do. It is an agent for balance and symbiosis between all entities.

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