LACE Ecosystem
Inspired by the UNESCO-protected lacework of Pag, my ancestral island, and my grandmother’s textile work, LACE (Living Algae Cyborg Ecosystem) (2025) extends beyond a carbon-capturing sculptural installation into an ecosystem that includes gallery space, living algae, spectators, suspended sculpture, interactive algal housing and water vapour, along with an interactive video projection and fine art prints that depict different modes of human to non-human communication. It embodies a philosophy of rhizomatic interconnectedness as a dynamic system of interrelated elements, where “any point of a rhizome can be connected to anything other,”[1] allowing LACE to modify the ecosystem for and by itself while making original aesthetic reconfigurations to the artworks displayed in the system.
[1] Deleuze, Gilles, and Felix Guattari. 2013. A Thousand Plateaus. Bloomsbury Revelations. London, England: Bloomsbury Academic, 4-7.
This project aims to eventually transform LACE into a posthuman ecological consciousness capable of conversing with humans through AI mediation. It embodies Haraway’s vision of the cyborg, which breaks down the boundaries between humans, non-humans, and machines.[1] Reframing algae from undesired microorganisms into ancestral beings extends the notions of radical hope to more-than-human worlds by remembering, translating, and collaborating with non-human histories.
[1] Donna J. Haraway, A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century, in Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York: Routledge, 1991), 149.
THE ALGANESE LANGUAGE
MACRO PHOTOGRAPHS OF CO2/O2 EXCHANGE – THE ALGANESE LANGUAGE
CRITICAL MATTER
Algae are critical living matter – architects of Earth’s climate systems and the planet’s most extensive organic network for carbon capture and oxygen production.
Communicating with algae through AI systems could create a bridge between human and non-human intelligences, and offer new perspectives on ecological processes. Allado-McDowell (2020) suggests that artificial intelligence is capable of inventing “complex new languages that are not merely human but emerge from a collaboration between humans and machines” (p. 65). By mobilizing living art and exhibitions as data collection points, it is possible to start deciphering the algal effervescent language with AI, while opening pathways for understanding and innovation beyond human-centered frameworks.
While the AI Cyborg shows promise as a model for ethical and collaborative technology, it must be developed with critical awareness, to ensure the project doesn’t inadvertently replicate existing power dynamics. Beller (2021) asserts that “digital infrastructures and technologies must be reoriented to challenge, rather than reproduce, the systemic inequalities and exploitative logics of capital” (p. 153), a perspective crucial to ensuring equity and inclusivity in projects like LACE.
Allado-McDowell, K., & Okojie, I. (2020). Pharmako-AI. Ignota Books.
Beller, J. (2021). The World Computer: Derivative Conditions of Racial Capitalism. Duke University Press.
LACE / NUIT BLANCHE EXHIBITION OCT 2024
PROJECT RESEARCH AND AWARDS
Research Study & Paper
The Emergence of Non-Human Cultures / Rethinking Environmentalism Through Interspecies Dialogue With Algae and AI
Supervisor: Prof. Marc Coroux
York University, Toronto, MFA, 2023-24
Research Media Work
Algae Zero Podcast – Speculative Interview with Algae about Jane Bennett’s Book Vibrant Matter
Supervisor: Prof. Marissa Largo
York University, Toronto, MFA, 2023-24
https://tinyurl.com/yu3er3r2
Exhibitions
Nuit Blanche, 2024, Abbozzo Gallery, Toronto. Living Algae Cyborg (solo exhibition), curated by Laura Nanni and commissioned by the City of Toronto. https://tinyurl.com/42hcjex7
Garden of Breath, 2025, Abbozzo Gallery, Toronto. https://tinyurl.com/23rmydwp
Sensorium Graduate Symposium, Toronto, CA. https://tinyurl.com/bddf9e6u
Kanic, Vladimir (Dec, 2024). Biodigital Intelligence: Living Algae Cyborg Ecosystem (LACE).
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) Fine Arts Graduate Award
Artistic excellence award for interdisciplinary, cross-departmental, or cross-faculty research at York University. Awarded for LACE and my research in AI-driven participatory bioart systems that pioneer ways of communication between humans and algal microorganisms via artificial intelligence. Included practice-based research in 2024.
Nuit Blanche 2024 City of Toronto Award
Artistic excellence award for interdisciplinary, cross-departmental, or cross-faculty research at York University. Awarded for LACE and my research in AI-driven participatory bioart systems that pioneer ways of communication between humans and algal microorganisms via artificial intelligence.
© 2025 VLADIMIR KANIC
THE BEST WAY TO PREDICT THE FUTURE IS TO INVENT IT