Gary Zhexi Zhang will work with BALTIC + The NewBridge Project seek to understand human interfaces via systems of biological intelligences – he has been growing and observing Physarum Polycephalum (literally, “many-headed slime”), a slime mould which is relatively common in the wild in England. These single celled creatures are profoundly (evolutionarily) primitive, and literally brainless, yet exhibit complex social intelligence by forming distributed networks.
Gary is an artist and writer based in Birmingham. His work attempts to seek out the relationships between diverse systems — social, geographical, symbolic, biophysical — in order to understand the feedback loops between individuals, technology and society. Currently research interests are altruistic amoebae, Chinese internet culture and the erotics of technological interfaces. He is a staff contributor for Frieze magazine and has also written for publications including FOAM, Elephant and Fireflies. Upcoming exhibitions include ALL CHANNELS OPEN at Wysing Arts Centre (2017).