Organism 512 Beta Version 2: Incubator for Emerging Collectives

Organism 512 is a live exhibition experiment in which the boundaries between object, material, technology, and movement are blurred and rewritten. It is a space that functions as a biotechnological entity, a dynamic, kinetic, and responsive system operating with its own internal logic, developing a language of material, form, and code.

The number 512 comes from the DMX protocol, a digital control system used to program theatrical lighting. Here, it no longer serves only as a technical infrastructure, but becomes the genetic code of an organic-technological structure, shifting from functional measurement to a metaphor for reaction, movement, and potential.

The artists translated the language of lighting programming and adapted it to control different types of motors. Instead of a system designed to produce accurate, obedient lighting, they developed a new language, a network in which light, sound, movement, and material respond to one another. The code, originally intended for theatrical performance, becomes a living mechanism that organizes rhythm and relationships between objects in space.

The installation, created specifically for the gallery space, developed out of a research-based collaboration between Cohen and Eisenstadt. In it, they explored the intersection between traditional craft materials and contemporary technologies. From this dialogue, a hybrid language emerged, combining kinetic sculpture, found objects, and smart lighting to form a dynamic exhibition space that behaves like a living body, an aesthetic-technological organism that is both slightly dystopian and slightly post-human.

The works were created through an ongoing process of deconstruction and reassembly. Everyday objects, industrial materials, and control systems were removed from their original contexts and reconfigured into poetic components with new timing and presence. By disrupting and expanding the programming of lighting codes, they built a unified yet multi-layered structure, an aesthetic-mechanical system in which code and movement work together to produce open communication. This generates a material-digital language that links objects, layers of technological memory, and the interplay between control and movement that resists fixed structures.

The installation offers a kind of protocol for existence, an organism formed through an internal, cyclical rhythm of change and transformation. It reflects the erasure of boundaries between human and machine in an era defined by code and image, and invites viewers to consider a reality in which the organic, technological, and ethical are deeply interwoven.

In an age of artificial intelligence, datafication, and information warfare, in which systems of power operate through code, movement, and image, Organism 512 imagines an alternative.

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Erez Cohen, a 2024 graduate of the New Media Department at Musrara, creates interactive installations that combine programming, electronics, and video mapping to explore the relationship between humanity and artificial intelligence.

Noam Eisenstadt, also a 2024 graduate of the New Media Department at Musrara, focuses on kinetic sculpture, found objects, video, and lighting. He creates abstract installations that blend new technologies with traditional materials.

The installation is presented as part of Beta Version, an incubator for emerging collectives. Now in its second year, the incubator aims to nurture a new generation of artists who will lead the Jerusalem art scene.