About This Project

This project seeks to experiment with haptic sensory substitution ("a way to bypass one traditional sensory organ by using another"), as a mean to augment human perception in relation to other living beings and the environment. That is, couple the human central nervous system (through the feeling of touch) to the state/activity of other forms of life, so as to empirically explore the qualia, cultural, and ecological implications of such entanglements.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

It all started with the book "The Secrete Life of Plants" and its empirical accounts of the sentience of plants. Fascinated by it, I began to research and prototype DIY electronic systems that would allow me to replicate some of the described findings.

GITHUB

A year and a half into this process I came across the astonishing work of Dr. David Eagleman et al. around Sensory Substitution/Augmentation and it all clicked together! The possibility of developing a direct perceptual experience of another being's aliveness became an immediate goal. And so the SymBioWare was born.

What is the significance of this project?

It's no hyperbole to argue that humanity is facing major existential crises throughout the world: ecological, social, economic, and so on. I endorse the thesis that "these are all different facets of one and the same crisis – a crisis of perception". One rooted in the artificial separation of humanity and nature.

If so, comes the question "how to effectively shape change in the world?"

There is no clear-cut answer. However, my experiences with public Bio-Sonification have shown me that translating the aliveness of beings such as plants/fungi to our sense of hearing can fundamentally shake people's perception of reality forever.

Now, if we could somewhat perceive as other living forms, we'd firsthand experience the unrevealing of entire new worlds. What could that mean to us?

What are the goals of the project?

My hypothesis is that a person wearing a bio-data driven haptic interface for an adequate period will grow an ability to assertively intuit about the state/activity of another being who feeds the interface with its bio-signals.

To test it, I plan to connect myself to another being for as much as possible (over the period of one month), relying on visual cues to compare vibratory stimuli and being's states/activities. I will also test different kinds of biodata to address questions of signal I/O mapping and temporal scales.

My final goal is to share my experiment accounts as an academic paper - including a first Protocol for Biodata-to-Haptics Wearable Systems - and a sci-fi story that integrates such ideas and practices into an exciting and hopeful vision for the future.