@ HCI – Division for Human-Computer Interaction,
Techno-Z Salzburg Bauteil V, Jakob-Haringer-Straße 8, 5020 Salzburg
It’s our pleasure to welcome our Mays subnetAIR, Lyra Robinson! Wednesday, April 20th, they will present their project and talk about their work.
The jury states: „Lyra Robinson proposes the exploration of a computational model of Caenorhabditis elegans, a 1mm nematode worm. Following a path of speculative fabulation, the artist investigates different forms of being and knowing. In doing so, the project invites audiences to reconsider the boundaries between empirical understanding and imaginative interpretation, revealing new possibilities for interdisciplinary dialogue.
The jury wants to encourage that and approves (1.) the open and creative approach that will produce, amongst other artifacts (like renderings of worm variations), a real-time audiovisual system as an immersive experience, as well as (2.) the necessity to inquire what art can offer that science can not.“
Lyra Robinson is aiming to develop a new body of work exploring the OpenWorm simulation – an open-source computational model of Caenorhabditis elegans, a 1mm nematode worm with exactly 302 neurons.
This microscopic organism has been fundamental to biological research for over 50 years; every synapse mapped, every cell division documented. It is perhaps the most thoroughly known organism on Earth.
Working with OpenWorm’s neural simulation (c302) and physics engine (Sibernetic), they will create speculative modifications to the worm’s body plan and neural architecture – generating impossible worms, alien morphologies,
tentacled variations that push against biological constraints.
As synthetic biologist Drew Endy states: „The current life forms are only the tip of the iceberg of the possible life forms.“ What happens when we give C. elegans the body plan of hypothetical organisms on Jupiter’s ice moons? What does a worm look like when its neural topology is rewired for environments that don’t exist?
Lyra Robinson (b. 2002) is a transmedia artist whose work spans performance, installation, and video.
Their practice is concerned with the mechanisms through which bodies are read, understood, and made legible in their interactions with surveillance technologies and data gathering. They explores the possibilities for disrupting established knowledge systems to imagine new forms of embodied agency.
They has recently exhibited at the Tate Modern, Photographer’s Gallery, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
More about Lyra Robinson:
https://lyrarobinson.art/
https://www.instagram.com/lyrafuckingrobinson/
Picturecredit: Lyra Robinson
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subnetAIR 2026
www.subnet.at subnetAIR is a cooperation between the Center for Human Computer Interaction (University of Salzburg) and subnet.