Marc Lee is a Swiss artist. He focuses on real-time processed, computer programmed audiovisual installations, AR, VR and mobile apps. He critically reflects creative, cultural, social, ecological, political and speculative aspects. His work has been shown in major museums and new media art exhibitions including: ZKM Karlsruhe, New Museum New York, MMCA Seoul, ISEA Gwangju and Paris, Transmediale Berlin, Ars Electronica Linz and has received major awards including: the Expanded Media Award for Network Culture Stuttgart (2024), the Pax Art Award Basel (2021), the Netart Award Hamburg (2008) and the Transmediale Award (2002). He is lecturing, teaching and holding workshops about art and software art in many schools including the CAA Hangzhou, Strelka Moscow, SIVA Shanghai, MMCA Seoul and ZHdK Zurich
Speculative Evolution
Mobile App as Interface for Interactive Installation, 2024
This experiment is a speculative simulation of a future ecosystem. The narrative sets in a speculative farm, 30 years from now, where artificial intelligence and synthetic biology work together to create an optimized environment for farmed species. An AI agent helps the audience to generate
new species to balance a delicate ecosystem.
Based on scientific publications on synthetic biology, genetic engineering and robotics, we envisioned how species could be further developed to increase their resilience and formulated text prompts to create AI generated images using DALL-E. As a result, each speculative species in the environment has a backstory rooted in real-life scenarios: bees which lose the sense of orientation due to pesticides; snails that are displaced by invasive species; rice that is exposed to increasing drought and temperature. We imagine a future where technologies like 3D printing, CRISPR, and synthetic biology play a part in modifying species for a higher chance of survival – genetically engineered super-bees with 3D-printed parts that restore their lost navigation skills; Hawaiian land snails with snake DNA to control the introduced snail invasion; genetically modified drought-tolerant and protein rich rice.
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