Cyberbiome
Dr. Pat Pataranutaporn, Aria Xiying Bao, Brandon Dorr, Dr. David Kong, Pattie Maes, Dr. Galina Mihaleva, and Dr. Christopher Voigt
2021
Bio-digital SmartSuit with optoelectronic device; 21 x 68 in.
Presented as part of Emergence: Art from Life
“The future isn’t something we wait for; the future is something we create,” said Pat Pataranutaporn, addressing a packed Bangkok conference room in September 2023. In Pataranutaporn’s case, this is a literal statement. A technologist and researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Pataranutaporn’s body of work reimagines the traditional borders of the human body, exploring human-AI interaction, synthetic biological augmentation, and the fertile cross-pollination between biological and digital systems.
Pataranutaporn was born in the Songkhla province of southern Thailand. Before moving to the United States, he co-founded the Bangkok-based Futuristic Research Cluster, or FREAK Lab, an “anti-disciplinary” research group blending art and science to explore the relationship between humanity and emerging technologies. Pataranutaporn is a member of the Fluid Interfaces research group at the MIT Media Lab. Here “media” refers broadly to the concept of an artistic medium, and the program emphasizes the integration of science with design, engineering, and the arts. As part of the Fluid Interfaces group, Pataranutaporn’s research focuses on enabling the seamless integration of humans and machines. In Pataranutaporn’s hands, computers become an extra-corporeal organ, as useful–and one day, perhaps, as integral–as a kidney or a heart.
Or the dermis. With the CyberBiome smart spacesuit, Pataranutaporn and his team created a prototype for an intelligent second skin that wearers could utilize in the ultra-foreign environment of outer space. Designed for day-to-day life in microgravity as well as for the exploration of new biomes, the smart spacesuit is made from soft, stretchy, self-healing biosynthetic fabric and outfitted with a bony exoskeleton of compartments holding biodigital organs, which together outline the shape of a heart. The optogenetic components of the suit continually monitor the wearer, triggering the production of personalized molecular therapies according to different biosignatures. Such provocative conceptual details suggest the potential alienness of the future human. When we’re off Earth, what will we become? Where does the border of the human begin–at the level of the body, or of the planet?
— Natasha K. Boyd
MicroPET Component Prototype
Dr. Pat Pataranutaporn, Sean Auffinger, Gregg Beckham, Patrick Chwalek, Ariel Ekblaw, Dr. Erika Erickson, Dr. Benjamin Fram, Dr. Nicholas Gauthier, Morgan Ingraham, Xin Liu, Dr. Christopher Mason, Natasha Murphy, Kelsey Ramirez, Krista Ryon, Dr. Sunanda Sharma, Dr. Braden Tierney, and Dr. Allison Werner
2023
Prototype of microfluidic chip; 2.5 x 1.5 in.
Presented as part of Emergence: Art from Life
“Technology is neither negative nor positive nor even neutral. It is not inherently good or evil, but rather depends on how people utilize it,” Pataranutaporn has stated. “I don’t believe that developing innovative technologies is going to automatically make our lives better. Artificial intelligence may deceive us if it is programmed to do so, or it may assist us in learning more effectively. In the end, it is a question of how it should be complemented or connected to humans in order to achieve a result.”
For all that, Pataranutaporn’s MicroPET project might easily be described as inherently beneficial. Today, 6.3 billion tons of plastic sit in landfills and form small islands out at sea. PET plastic, or polyethylene terephthalate, is one of the most common forms of plastic waste. It’s used widely in clothing fibers and food and liquid containers and takes about 450 years to decompose naturally. The MicroPET biological system programs bacteria and enzymes to break down such PET plastic, converting it into environmentally benign molecules for reuse. Named one of TIME’s “200 Best Inventions of 2023,” the MicroPET project envisions an evolution— one in which the detritus produced by global civilization is absorbed and transfigured for a new world order, one where our garbage no longer outlasts us. We might both be transformed.
— Natasha K. Boyd
Image credit: (Installation) Carson Davis Brown
CyberBiome and MicroPET were featured in Emergence: Art from Life, an exhibition at the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, as part of PST ART. Presented by Getty, PST ART returned in September 2024 with Art & Science Collide, a regional event exploring the connections between art and science, past and present.
Thank you PST ART; JACCC; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; and The Japan Foundation, Los Angeles for your support of Emergence.