MEART is a geographically detached artist. Its "brain" consists of dissociated rat neurons grown in culture. It is at home and growing in Atlanta.

The body, though, - a robot arm with a drawing facility attached to it, is in Perth, Australia. The brain and body interact through the internet (TCP/IP) in real time.

These neurons are cultured over 60 electrodes fitted on a glass substrate. The electrodes pick up 60 channels of activity from the neurons.

The data received from the neural activity is processed both in Atlanta & Perth to control in real time the robotic (drawing) arm. The feedback loop is closed by stimulating the neurons (again, 60 electrodes, 60 different areas in the culture) when various events in the gallery space occur. We had MEART "draw portraits". Each morning we captured an image of a gallery visitor. Then we degraded it to 60 Pixels and fed that into the 60 electrodes to stimulate the neurons.

Once we sent stimulation to the neurons we recorded the neural activity and used this data to move the drawing arm. The reading/stimulations occurred every 1-5 sec.

We were interested to see if any emergent or “creative” behavior will occur, or trace any change in the pattern of behavior of the neurons that occurs as a result of the stimulations. The drawings that we got were very interesting, mainly their differences.

The combined elements of unpredictability and “temperament” with the ability to learn and adapt, create an artistic entity that is both dependent, and independent, from its creator and its creator’s intentions.