MagnoSphere: a living computational system shaped by magnetotactic bacteria

Abstract

Current bio-digital systems frequently position organisms as sensors or esthetic elements, while their inherent computational capabilities remain underutilized. At the same time, when biological processes are integrated into technical systems, they often remain hidden or abstracted away, failing to foster awareness and appreciation of the biological intelligence (Kim et al. 2023). This dual limitation prevents both technical innovation and conceptual understanding of what biological computers might become. We present MagnoSphere, a living biodesign installation that addresses both gaps by demonstrating the natural sensing and collective response capabilities of magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) as potential building blocks for bio-digital computation. The project investigates how microorganisms’ intrinsic sensing and collective behavior can be made perceptible through design. Rather than implementing a complete computational system, the project investigates foundational questions: how do microorganisms respond to environmental changes in ways that could serve computational functions, and how can design make these biological dynamics perceptible and understandable? MTB biomineralize magnetic nanoparticles (magnetosomes) within their cellular structure, making them responsive to external magnetic fields (Goswami et al. 2022). MTB navigate using magnetotaxis, creating complex collective behaviors in response to magnetic stimulation. These observable responses could potentially be harnessed as forms of information processing in computational paradigms like Physical Reservoir Computing (Nakajima 2020). However, before computational implementation is possible, we must first surface, understand and characterize these responses, along with their repeatability over time. Drawing on Kim et al.’s Surfacing Livingness paper (Kim et al. 2023), MagnoSphere employs sensorial amplification strategies to make the bacterial responses visible and tangible for human observers. The installation emphasizes exploration: visitors manipulate the magnetic field to direct bacterial movement within the chamber, observing how populations collectively migrate, shimmer and reorganize over time. This approach enables visitors to perceive biological sensing as an observable process revealing characteristics like shimmering intensity, response speed, collective organization and temporal patterns that could serve as computational building blocks. Magnetic field manipulation serves as input, bacterial movement and lighting patterns serve as computational transformation and sensorial amplification layers make this process perceptible: real-time microscopy projections enlarge the bacterial dynamics, and data visualization tracks response characteristics over time. The system uses digital components for real-time readout of the bacterial state and amplification (supporting observation and understanding), while the biological system provides the sensing and collective response dynamics. The sensorial amplification aims at creating a communication bridge, enabling humans to witness this relationship between and explore these biological capabilities. The installation unites biodesign with computational investigation through a demonstration where living organisms’ responses are made directly observable rather than abstracted away. For the biodesign community, the contribution is threefold. First, it concretizes MTB’s computational potential through quantitative population-level characterization of bacterial collective behavior – thereby revealing the dynamics that underpin its computational capabilities. Secondly, it operationalizes the concept of surfacing livingness, demonstrating how sensorial amplification can reveal otherwise hidden biological intelligence. Third, it enables critical discussion about how synergistic bio-digital computational systems might be realized in practice. Conference attendees will engage with an installation where they can manipulate magnetic inputs and observe the unfolding living responses. Through this direct exploration, visitors develop intuition about bacterial dynamics, while encountering questions about how such capabilities might serve future computational functions. As an installation, MagnoSphere communicates the potential for biological intelligence and digital systems to interweave – creating dialogue about alternative computational futures.