TARDIGOTCHI

S.W.A.M.P. & TIAGO RORKE

Tardigotchi features two pets: a living organism and an alife avatar. These two disparate beings find themselves the unlikely denizens of a portable computing enclosure. The main body for this enclosure is a brass sphere, housing the alife avatar and a tardigrade—a common microorganism measuring half a milimetre in length. The alife avatar is a caricature of this tardigrade, its behaviour is partially autonomous, but it also reflects a considerable amount of expression directly from the tardigrade’s activities.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

S.W.A.M.P. (Studies of Work Atmospheres and Mass Production) is the collaborative effort of artists Douglas Easterly and Matt Kenyon. Their work focuses on critical themes addressing the effects of global corporate operations, mass media and communication, military-industrial complexes and general meditations on life. Tiago Rorke is a designer currently working as a teaching fellow at Victoria University of Wellington. Tiago’s studio practice reflects a keen interest in programming and electronics, especially projects that deal with ubiquitous computing technologies.