2010-09-14

Vario Zoosystematica Produndorum - Research Statement

Recent biological research shows that fish communicate much more by sounds than was
previously assumed - for example, the catfish hunts by driving its prey into specific areas by
making loud sounds. ["Stumm wie ein fisch?" Wohl kaum!]

Marine mammals such as whales and probably dolphins are known to communicate
acoustically over large distances; by comparison, very little is known about communication in
the deep sea. From ca. 700m below the surface, the sea is completely dark, the only light
sources are animals generating light by bioluminescence. As sound carries very well in water, it
is plausible to assume that much deep sea communication is acoustic. Some species like the
fawn cusk-eel (Lepophidium profundorum) are known to develop special muscles for making
sounds during mating season, and some fish are known to make sounds by grinding their
teeth; more unknown means of sound production are to be expected.

To address these open questions, the Generative Art/Computational Art class at UdK (Prof. Dr.
de Campo), has developed models for Deep Sea communication, inspired by the work of Louis
Bec and Vilem Flusser: A number of agents simulate aspects of the communicative behavior of
different deep sea creatures. They transmit symbols ("letters") to each other which each
individual assembles into longer chains ("words"); when an agent / creature has collected a
word it deems meaningful, it expresses that word by emitting sound, light, or motion patterns.
Some creatures generate rhythmic pulse sequences, some almost melodic phrases. Others let
hues of colors flash over their skins, while others again float up and down in space in response
to the conversation between them.

Despite the remoteness of this habitat, these observable communication forms may well be
inadvertently influenced by human intervention: Songbirds are known to adopt the varying
sound patterns generated by new car alarms into their songs; Wolfgang Mueller's work
"Hausmusik" posits that the starlings now living near Kurt Schwitters' summer house in
Norway sing variants of Ursonate segments learned by their ancestors who have listened to
Schwitters practicing the Ursonate (and possibly being influenced by them as well).
Submarines have been present in the deep sea since World War I, communicating by
radio/encrypted morse; as sea animals may well have electromagnetic senses, and deep sea
magnetic ore might well decode electromagnetic transmissions into mechanical vibrations, it
seems quite likely that deep sea animals have been sensing and hearing messages as morse
code rhythms for more than 100 years. As these patterns are also very robust against interference, and thus a potential advantage in natural selection, the deep sea creatures may very well have adopted such rhythmic encoding in sound and electromagnetic waves for their own communication purposes...

Simulating aspects of animal behavior allows studying phenomena that are difficult to observe
in the wild; beyond that, given the freedom of such works in artistic contexts, one may also
find that the strangeness of the unknown reflects the human world and its subjective
experience in unexpected ways.

see also:
Acta infernalia 2010/7, pp 42-66.
Fine, M.L., Lin, H., Nguyen, B.B., Rountree, R.A., Cameron, T.M., and Parmentier, E. 2007.
Functional morphology of the sonic apparatus of the fawn cusk-eel Lepophidium profundorum.
Journal of Morphology. 268:953-966.
Flusser, V., and Bec, L. Vampyroteuthis infernalis. 1993, Göttingen.
Varia zoosystematica profundorum, vol XVII nr 3, pp 21-45. 

http://entropie.digital.udk-berlin.de/wiki/DeepSea

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