SlimeMoldCrypt - Security as a biological process

"Created by Stephanie Rentschler at the University of Applied Arts Vienna ( Design Investigations), SlimeMoldCrypt is a speculative device that reimagines security as a biological process using a single-celled slime mold, as an unpredictable and dynamic encryption engine. As quantum computers loom on the horizon, threatening to break traditional time-based encryption systems, society continues to trust its most sensitive information to corporate-controlled digital vaults. But what if encryption were not a product of bureaucracy, algorithms, or speed, but a living relationship?"

"This organism's (Physarum polycephalum) ever-changing network of tendrils reacts instantly to its environment, creating chaotic, decentralized growth patterns that are inherently resistant to computational decryption-even by quantum machines. In this installation, the visitor becomes the steward of their own data. Their encryption strength is tied directly to their care: by managing three environmental controls, light, humidity, and nourishment, they influence the slime mold's vitality. The more attentively they engage, the more vibrant its cellular movement becomes, enhancing the entropy of the encryption."

SlimeMoldCrypt uses the single-celled organism Physarum polycephalum as a living encryption engine. The organism’s ever-changing network of tendrils forms chaotic, decentralized growth patterns that produce high entropy resistant to computational decryption, including by quantum machines. Visitors steward their own data by managing light, humidity, and nourishment, which directly influence the slime mold’s vitality and the strength of encryption. Attentive care increases cellular movement and entropy, while neglect reduces activity and exposes information. The approach challenges reliance on bureaucratic, algorithmic, and speed-based systems and proposes an alternative where encryption arises from a living, care-driven relationship.

Read at CreativeApplications.Net