Nature.exe

Yanrui Shao, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft)

Artwork Description:

Reimagining web typology by drawing on the decentralized, adaptive intelligence of slime mold from a posthuman perspective. Nature.exe explores nature’s intelligence as a framework for rethinking technological systems. Using the conventional Web Crawler, a hierarchical, human-designed tool for indexing the internet as a starting point, the project integrates the decentralized logic of slime mold (Physarum polycephalum), renowned for its distributed, adaptive problem-solving without centralized control. This biologically inspired model remaps the crawler’s mechanism and reconfigures internet typology. In doing so, Nature.exe challenges the view of technology as exclusively human-made and power-driven. Through a posthuman lens, it proposes a new definition of technology, one rooted in collaboration with non-human forms of intelligence.

Project Collaborators:

Advisor: Leon Eckert