Jenn Leung

Assembloid Agency is a series of expansive creative technology experiments using living neurons as real-time processors. Integrating human biological neurons into a synthetic computer chip, and through a series of experimental research/response visualizations developed by Jenn Leung, the project used the world's first code-deployable biological computer to process human movement tracking data, enter embodied game environments in Unreal Engine, and generate biological music signatures with a Commodore 64. Audiences interface with the CL1, seeing their inputs directly processed by the neurons in crowd simulation, particle systems, audio signatures, and more.

Part 1 'Closed-Loop Connections' is a real-time feedback system between human bodies and a living network of cultured neurons housed inside a CL1 biocomputer at Cortical Labs. A camera continuously observes the exhibition space. Using TouchDesigner, participants’ movements are abstracted into anonymous blob tracking data. These movement patterns are translated into custom stimulation patterns that are sent to the CL1. Electrical signals stimulate specific electrodes on a high-density MEA, interfacing directly with living neurons. These stimulations can be shaped into a pattern to represent any type of information, from game worlds to handwritten digits. In response to the movement data, the neurons produce spiking activity as they process and adapt to these inputs. The CL1 streams this raw neural activity data in real time via UDP (User Datagram Protocol) to Unreal Engine as generative source of a visual narrative.

Part 2 'Actual Intelligence' was a performance where the CL1 was connected to a Commodore 64 to generate real-time music signatures from neuronal activity as a biological audio synthesizer. Closed-loop connections occur between humans in the space and the living neurons interfaced within CL1, both functioning simultaneously as subjects in a living computational ecology.