Neuromimes

2014 - current

collaborative open-source hardware research project

description
The neuromime is an open source electronic model of a biological nerve cell. Networks of neuromimes can be interconnected to create site-responsive electro-physical artworks. As muscles in a body physically articulate neurological function through gesture and voice, the behaviour of the network is expressed through pulsing patterns of sound, light, and motion.

context
The neuromime was designed by artist Norman White and presented at the Grounding Open Source Hardware summit (Banff, 2009). In 2015, it was released as an open-source hardware project by artist Peter Flemming and computer scientist Stephen Kelly. Neuromimes:

critically examine the omnipresence of software neural networks by extracting certain of their properties, rendering them physical and therefore available for contemplation
propose that complex and provocative digital artworks can be made without computers (you just needs lots of neuromimes) and that algorithms can be embedded physically in objects as well as software
explore the history of computation, referring back to early hardware neural nets, like the perceptron
bridge art and science

source files and further reference
project repository: https://github.com/gnimm/neuromime

Norman White on Neuromimes, 2014

Norman White, author of the neuromime, speaking on neuromimes, art, biology, culture at Interaccess in Toronto, 2014.

Neuromimes - audio feedback loop, 2016

Neuromime research and experiments from summer 2016 in the studio of Stephen Kelly studio (Halifax, Nova Scotia).

Neuromimes - fibre optic synapses, 2017

Documentation of neuromimes research conducted during at Winter 2017 residency at Eastern Bloc in Montréal, Québec. Fibre-optic synapses and double audio feedback loop.