Amoebic Lifeforms: Visual Forms of Artificial Life

precise; on the other hand, liaisons, or connections, between words, such as those frequently used in French, can be recognized by the system. However, a system that allows true dialogue has yet to be designed. In transNEUROsite, the system recognizes both key words and syntax. The technological angle of the script made it possible for us to create a new way of presenting artistic fiction: through the movement of a neuron through different areas of the brain. The Script In the performance, a character’s two personalities are represented as two neurons in a human brain. The action has been limited to the main regions of the brain, such as the areas that correspond to language, hearing, taste, vision and an evolutionarily older part of the brain important for decision-making . We added some specific subregions that involve personality, such as regions important in reasoning and emotions, memory and verbal processes. One of the neurons (hnmobil) soliloquizes but is not physically present on stage. An ensemble of video monitors transmits words and images from the brain’s colored inner universe. The second neuron (Mobil, situated in the cingulum ) rebels against the system,which has kept it motionless and sentenced it to receiving volleys of information while not being able to know the entire space in which it exists (Color Plate B No. 1). The neuron decides to converse with the brain, a process that allows it to move about in real time, with the computer showing a 3D view of the brain, assembled from a series of twodimensional MRIs, from the neuron’s perspective (Fig. 4).(A speech-recognition system makes the trip through the brain possible, navigating by what the voices of the neuron indicates it wishes to see [4]. The end of the performance is tragic. Mobil cannot stay in the memory areas of the brain and therefore vanishes. It loses all the benefits of its tour because there is no place in the brain for a new generation of mobile neurons. At the start of the performance, a text by Antonio Damasio flashes on screen to inform us of the intricacies of brain geography. Isabelle Chemin (text and voice of tlie mobile neuron); Einmanuel Alii. (voice of the immobile neuron) ;FrCdi.ric Cliapat (voice of the navigation system); Antonio K. Damasio (scientifictexts [4]); Guido Hitbner (text, sound, lighting); Mattliias Ludwig, FH Ravensburg-M’eingarten, Germany (navigation system programming); Alexdndre Lenoir, ISMRA/GREYC (brain scans); Pierre Nugues, leader of the voice recognition staff of ISMRA/GREYC. TransNlZ/KOsifeis a production of Das Synthetische Miscligewebe, in collaboration with Maison de Recherclie en Sciences Humaines (MSRH) and Intitnt des Sciences de la MatiZ-reet du Rayonnement (ISMRA),Caen University, France. Sponsors included IBM, Grand AccklkrateurNational d‘lons Lourds (GANIL), Synergia TeclinopBle-Directioii Rkgionale des maires Culturelles (DKAC),Aquitaine/Calvados, Philips Srmicondnctors, Heroiiville St-Clair,and the Video Club of Caen. TransN1:’UROsilewas performed at tlie Science en FSte Tliiitre de la Maison cle I’Ctudiant Caen, October 1996,and at tlie Festival Multimedia, Coutances, April 1997. References and Notes 1. “Natinxl language”refers to conversation in human languages, as opposed to computer languages such asJava, C++,etc. Engineers work with language on a grammatical basis, but are working tcward a natural language basis. Most speechrecognition programs work in a limited way, placing constraint on the user. We are far from what psycholinguists call true dialogue. These concepts influenced o w project. 2. Pierre Nugues and Alexandre Lenoir, ISMRA,6, bd du MarichalJuin, F-14050Caen, France. E-mail: ; . Web sites: chttp://~r7~v.ensicaeii.ismra.fr/ -niigues>; chttp://\\?r?y.eiisicaen.ismra.~r/-alex>. 3 .In the story of Aladdin, his relationship with tlie Genie allowed him to be able to do things that wonld Iiave been impossible were he depending on his own capabilities. In tmnsNEIIROsife,the neuron was able to use tlie speech-recognition system to take a virtiial tour of arcas of tlie brain and realize the complexity of brain geography-soinething tlie neuron woitld not have been able to do without the speech-recognition system. 4. The action manager (part of tlie system architecture ) queries the system’sgeometric reasoner to convert the referenced list of actions into...