Humans increasingly look to nonhuman behavior for lessons amid mass protests, viral conspiracy theories, and a global pandemic. New tracking and surveillance technologies enable researchers to study collective intelligence—the self-organization of organisms without a clear plan or leader—to address complex human problems. Murmurations of birds have informed drone choreography and self-driving car flow. The concept of "uncomputable" behavior applies across memes, social movements, and slime mold, where multiple agents converge as a superorganism. Seemingly organic forms can gesture toward networks of digital capitalism, extractivism, and invisible labor. A series titled "A.A.I." (2014) was produced through collaboration with an entomology lab and millions of termites, using termite mounds as examples of collective construction that regulate environmental conditions.
With the help of new technologies for tracking and surveillance, researchers across various fields have turned to the phenomenon of collective intelligence-the self-organization of organisms without a clear plan or leader-hoping to find hacks for our species' most intractable problems. Observing the murmuration of birds, for example, in which hundreds of thousands of animals coalesce in one coordinated, fluid movement, has helped engineers choreograph drone displays and manage the flow of self-driving cars.
These behaviors, which she calls "uncomputable," are exemplified in phenomena ranging from memes to social movements to slime mold, in which multiple agents wordlessly converge as one superorganism. But the picture Kurant paints is not as pleasant as a shape-shifting flock of birds in the sky. In her work, seemingly simple, organic forms gesture toward whole networks of digital capitalism, extractivism, and invisible labor.
Kurant's series of sculptures "A.A.I.," first shown in 2014, offers a key to her ongoing themes. The series is the product of a cross-disciplinary collaboration-as are all her works, whether made with humans, animals, or machines. In this case, she cooperated with an entomology lab at the University of Florida and several million termites. Termite mounds are exemplary products of collective intelligence: Colonies work together over years to build a complex structure that regulates their temperature and carb
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