Gestaltology Encoded is an experimental research article in the form of an exposition, centered around the development of an artificial organism, Arcana, coming to life through the artistic research project Gestaltology (2020–2023). The project aims to explore AI and robotics in a way that challenges Cartesian dualism, by investigating the interplay between mind, body, and environment. By engaging a transdisciplinary team, the project delves into evolutionary biology, AI, and robotics, creating an artificial organism that evolves through symbiosis with its environment. Arcana’s artistic process, rooted in these conditions, emerges through its ability to create visual outputs that transcend human-centric perspectives. This research proposes a posthuman approach to AI development, emphasizing an ecocentric and performative perspective that reshapes the relationship between technology, art, and ecology. The article reflects on the project's iterative nature, where failure is viewed as an inevitable and creative catalyst, guiding the project toward unforeseen futures.
Gestaltology Encoded
DiPisaStasinski (Alessandra Di Pisa & Robert Stasinski) develops transdisciplinary artistic research that draws upon artificial intelligence, collaborative processes, critical technologies, and more-than-human perspectives.
Their work is grounded in a technoecological practice – where robotics, AI and alternative cognitive machines emerge not from singular creation, but through distributed networks of human labor, environmental adaptation, and synthetic collaboration.
Their ongoing research project Technoecology - Performing Computation and Aesthetic Sensibility, with support by the Swedish Research Council proposes an alternative vision for AI and robotics. By inhabiting the space between organic and mechanical systems, they are building emergent knowledge through artistic collaboration, where technology is understood not as separate from nature, but as another participant in collective becoming.
Their practice includes Heroes of Vivalla (2016–2017), in Örebro municipality, Being Unthinkable… (2017-2021) in collaboration with IBM Sweden, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Atrium Ljungberg, and Enchanted Threads of Visual Arcana – GESTALTOLOGY ENCONDED at Visualiseringscenter, Norrköping (2023).
Alessandra Di Pisa is an associate professor in Visual Communication and Design and Head of Division at Malmstens Linköpings University. Robert Stasinski, a lecturer at Tema G, Linköping University, is also Editor-in-Chief of Konstnären Magazine.
Visit the exposition in the database Research Catalogue.
