The questions EOD raises are fundamental questions: What do we take from nature and moreover, how? What do we get back from it? In which way are technology, fear and the unknown entwined and what is the relationship between ethics, aesthetics and bio-technology? Becomes the scientific process a spectacle? Is EOD representing the growing instrumentalization and manipulation of life? Does it represent a decrease of diversity in biological habitats and an acceptance of the generic artificial habitat? A testimonial of humankind’s struggle for dominance over natural evolutionary forces and resources? Where is the position of the artist between ethic and technology? What is communication? Is communication between men and animal, mediated through technology ever possible? What is our pre -and current history to inter-species social formations such as the canary used by coal miners to give them early warning signals about dangerous conditions in the mines? How does animism and the role of other species creates meanings about the world? What is communication and how can it take shape?
The sum of all these questions is an artwork -and research project- that sparks excitement, curiosity, fear, awe in equal amounts and it’s clear that it cannot be experienced through representational media or existing discourse only. This ambiguity is inherent to hybrid art and EOD is clearly an example of this emergent kind of art. If Art is communication then the core questions is: how can this communication take shape? The most interesting form of communication is based upon playing/teasing with social conventions. Wherever there is friction there is communication. Both artist and audience benefit from this mutual interest, although artists tend to expand the scope to the ruling conventions of art. Communication is not restricted to human beings only. Some animals have developed intricate and fascinating ways to communicate. Weakly electric fish, for instance, communicate and jam each others electric signals. They ‘sing’ electric duets, electric courtship songs and sabotage each others frequencies to create an intelligent network of communication signals that can be made audible and visible (perceived) through technology.
Introducing this particular form of communication and subject enables us to question the anthropocentric viewpoint that prevails in art. As a consequence; a possible new perspective upon man/ nature/technology interaction. EOD deals with the combination of traditional ways of communication and new technological methods of communication. The EOD project is about (re-)constructing new meanings, signs, images and worlds. The applied technologies will not only influence the audiences perception but also their physical being. It constructs the viewers body anew and extends our human awareness outward into extra-terrestial environments. The applied technology serves as a tool to orient the audience and to make it possible for the artist to express himself.
EOD 04 _ Electric Organ Discharge 04
EOD 04 is an installation by Frederik De Wilde created in collaboration with the University Hasselt (BE). The project is a hybrid installation founded on extraordinary species of living fish that perceive, electro-sense, their environment and communicate with each other by emitting electric signals, either in pulses or waves. The project explores the normal communication mechanisms of electric fish, including JAR (the means by which a fish avoids attempts by other fish to jam its frequency) and thus investigates communication and non-communication between men and animal (interspecies communication). The discharges emitted by the fishes are midrange beta and alpha type. EOD makes reference to proto-information and communication technologies like morse code and the processes of coding and decoding, jamming and jamming avoidance responses displayed by the E-fishes Machiavellian communication strategies. The installation is based on one plexiglas tube presenting a specific composition of electric fish producing different electric signals. Antennas and sensors implemented in the artwork allows capturing the fishes signals which are related to two integrated speakers transforming these signals into sound, what we hear is the fish’s electric signals, their communication. A matrix of LED’s is placed above a grid of antennas pulsing according to the intensity, rhythm and position, of the emitted signals of the blind fishes. In this manner the electrical impulses of the fishes drive sound and light; an entire audiovisual space. The installation consists of living electric fish, electronics, microprocessors, compiled code, plexiglas and mixed media (170x20x20).
EOD’s: Social Communication
Electric fish emit sexually dimorphic EOD’s generated by a medullary pacemaker nucleus (PMN) composed of 2 cell types. The output neurons of the PMN synapse located on electromotor neurons on the spinal cord innervate the electric organ. The PMN only receives input from 2 sources, which are responsible for brief modulations that occur during social interactions. For these fish, EODs give information on the species, sex, and possibly the individual identity of another fish. Also, transient modulations in EOD frequency happen in social situations and convey information on aggressiveness, readiness to mate, etc.
Electroreception
Nonconductive objects reflect the electric fieldwhile highly conductive objects weaken the field by attracting electrons and ions from the field. The electroreceptors located in the epidermis of the head and sides of the fish perceive these changes. Voltage sensitive channels open to detect a change in the electric field-this stimulation of the cells cause the release of synaptic vesicles-release a neurotransmitter, which binds to a lateral line nerve fibre which eventually sends a signal to the brain where the information is processed. Ampularry receptors detect electric fields given off by other fish. Tuberous receptors respond to the range of the fish’s own EOD.
Jamming Avoidance Response (JAR)
The Jamming Avoidance Response (JAR) is a very important mechanism for electric fish. When two fish with nearly the same frequency meet each other, one alters his frequency to be slightly higher and the other alters to be slightly lower. The shifts are simultaneous and reflexive. This process prevents two frequencies from interfering and jamming each other’s electrical signals-allowing the fish to operate in the same area.
Weakly Electric Fish
Weakly electric fish use their electric organs primarily for the detection of the rough shape, conductivity, and location of nearby objects, recognition of members of their own species, calling their mates, finding their position in a school, and enacting other behaviours critical to their survival. These fish live in shallow streams of dark murky waters so the EOD (Electric Organ Discharge) essentially replaces their vision; they sense their surroundings by emitting an EOD, which creates an electric field around the fish. The fish can sense perturbations caused by objects in their electric field-called electro location. Weakly
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