Biotopy is a biotic game and interactive installation that speculates a more playful and collective mode of scientific discovery.
As a versatile game interface for controlling and visualizing real-time microbial growth, Biotopy enables players to explore virtual pet-like creatures on their computer mediated through bio-digital interactions. Through open, decentralized participation, this project can expand the diversity of microorganisms that are studied globally.
Bringing together our backgrounds in synthetic biology, game design, and history of science, we have been developing this project to provoke questions of how biotic agents will live with virtual universes, how scientific discoveries could be facilitated through collective play, and how we might practice a more expansive scientific self.
Biotopy is a collaborative project by Will Freudenheim, Darren Zhu and Wendi Yan.
R&D also included major contributions by Jessica Shand and Omar Rizwan.