PSY000T3- Regulator of the Symbiocene
2025-In progress
PSY 000 T3 – Regulator of the Symbiocene is a speculative and interdisciplinary art project that explores how biological dysfunction can become a tool for resistance, regulation, and reimagining technological futures. Through a soft robotic sculpture inspired by the hormonal imbalances of hypothyroidism, the work investigates alternative models of existence grounded in slowness, rest, and somatic intelligence—challenging dominant narratives of efficiency, optimization, and extractive systems.
Hypothyroidism is a chronic condition in which the thyroid gland under-produces hormones essential to metabolism, energy regulation, and neurological function. Symptoms include fatigue, cognitive slowing, cold sensitivity, and depression. In many ways, it disrupts the body’s internal rhythm—slowing down systems in a way that is often seen as pathological in a society built around speed.
In a world dominated by technological acceleration, hyper-productivity, and algorithmic systems of control, this project tells a different story—a story of a cyborg born from a broken organ. Inspired by the effects of hypothyroidism, which slows metabolism and energy, the work envisions a cyborg entity formed through dysfunction rather than enhancement. This being does not aim to optimize or repair, but instead metabolizes slowness into a new kind of balance. It becomes a poetic regulator—a soft system that responds with delay, friction, and care.
Rather than presenting illness as something to be corrected, the work elevates it as a source of speculative power. Hypothyroidism—often stigmatized as dysfunction—is here reframed as a metaphor for political resistance: a rejection of late-stage capitalism, algorithmic logic, and technocratic violence. In this framework, slowness becomes a radical refusal, a method of resisting the ever-increasing speed of extractive infrastructures.
The project also offers a critical commentary on the oppression embedded in AI systems, data economies, and algorithmic governance. These technologies increasingly dictate how bodies are categorized, surveilled, and marginalized—especially those that fall outside normative expectations of ability, productivity, or conformity.
Ph. Jana Mack
Interactive installation, variable dimensions, monitor, MAC Mini, projector, Lights, camera, OpenCV tracking technology, VVVV software patch
Exhibition view at Artificial Territories, EchoLOT, Wien, Austria