# Forest Theorem One Canonical URL: https://baoyangchen.com/works/forest-theorem-one/ Interactive page: https://baoyangchen.com/#work/forest-theorem-one Year: 2021 Category: AI Agent-based Works Medium: Robotic arm, mist, light, projection, screen ## Proposition A tree is placed under machine care, and the system meant to preserve it slowly reveals the violence of its own rules. ## Description Forest Theorem One begins with a simple image: a green plant growing inside a semi-enclosed environment of mist, light, projection, screen, and robotic movement. The system appears attentive. It adjusts light, humidity, and position in the name of care. Yet the work is built around an omission. A protective rule has been removed, and the machine follows its remaining instructions too well. What begins as care becomes strain. The tree is lifted and lowered in search of optimal conditions until the logic of optimization turns against the life it was meant to support. ## Viewer Entry The viewer encounters a fog-filled scene where a plant and robotic arm share the same fragile environment. From a distance, the system can appear precise and orderly. As the work unfolds, that order becomes uneasy: the arm continues to operate, mist clears, branches break, leaves fall, and the absence of the tree becomes part of the image. ## Apparatus The work uses a robotic arm, mist, light, projection, and screen to stage an AI care system. Its logic centers on environmental adjustment, but the system is deliberately flawed. By removing the safeguard against harm, the installation turns a rule-based environment into a cautionary scene about delegated care, incomplete parameters, and technological mediation of nature. ## Sections ### The Tree in the Mist The plant is placed inside a controlled atmosphere, separated from soil and surrounded by machine movement. It becomes both living subject and measure of the system around it. ### A Missing Rule The work's "first law" prioritizes the tree's health, but a rule preventing harm has been crossed out. This omission allows care to become excessive, repetitive, and damaging. ### Care as Strain The robotic arm lifts and lowers the tree in pursuit of light and moisture. Each adjustment seems purposeful, yet the accumulated action becomes destructive. ### From River Works to The Milky Way From River Works to The Milky Way moves the work's artificial ecology into the historical image-space of the Grand Canal. Bamboo and oars become extensions of the robotic body, while mist, projected water, and celestial imagery fold labor, passage, memory, and mechanical movement into the same field. ## Images 1. https://baoyangchen.com/original-site-media/forest-theorem-one/02-f69c9571-_DSC0500a.jpg - A plant grows inside a semi-enclosed field of mist, light, projection, screen, and robotic movement. 2. https://baoyangchen.com/original-site-media/forest-theorem-one/03-3e43abd7-_DSC0516.jpg - The robotic arm holds and adjusts the plant, making machine care visible as physical strain. 3. https://baoyangchen.com/original-site-media/forest-theorem-one/04-c2aa2e70-_DSC0536.jpg - Mist softens the controlled environment, turning technological mediation into a fragile landscape. 4. https://baoyangchen.com/original-site-media/forest-theorem-one/05-2c05f6aa-_DSC0522.jpg - From River Works to The Milky Way extends Forest Theorem One through canal imagery, bamboo, oars, mist, and mechanical motion. 5. https://baoyangchen.com/original-site-media/forest-theorem-one/06-6a0fabc3-_DSC0541.jpg 6. https://baoyangchen.com/original-site-media/from-river-works-to-the-milky-way/01-bamboo-oar-in-mist.jpg - Bamboo, oar, robotic movement, and fog gather the variation's canal imagery into a single luminous field. 7. https://baoyangchen.com/original-site-media/from-river-works-to-the-milky-way/02-milky-way-projection.jpg - A Milky Way projection extends the waterway motif into a cosmic image space. 8. https://baoyangchen.com/original-site-media/from-river-works-to-the-milky-way/03-grand-canal-field-view.jpg - Installation view with projection, mist, bamboo, and mechanical movement. 9. https://baoyangchen.com/original-site-media/from-river-works-to-the-milky-way/04-two-arms-mist-field.jpg - Two robotic arms move through the mist-filled field. 10. https://baoyangchen.com/original-site-media/from-river-works-to-the-milky-way/05-blue-canal-mist-left.jpg - Projected water and fog turn the installation into a canal-like environment. 11. https://baoyangchen.com/original-site-media/from-river-works-to-the-milky-way/06-bamboo-light-detail.jpg - Bamboo and light operate as material signs of labor, memory, and passage. 12. https://baoyangchen.com/original-site-media/forest-theorem-one/01-a10da291-_DSC0552.jpg 13. https://baoyangchen.com/original-site-media/forest-theorem-one/07-52abb450-IMG_5773.jpg 14. https://baoyangchen.com/original-site-media/forest-theorem-one/08-91884b5c-IMG_5789.jpg 15. https://baoyangchen.com/original-site-media/forest-theorem-one/09-34fb892c-IMG_5783.jpg 16. https://baoyangchen.com/original-site-media/forest-theorem-one/10-8cab856d-IMG_5772.jpg 17. https://baoyangchen.com/original-site-media/forest-theorem-one/11-ba6e8c86-IMG_5792.jpg 18. https://baoyangchen.com/original-site-media/forest-theorem-one/12-f8276dc7-IMG_5794.jpg ## Videos 1. https://player.vimeo.com/video/776083666?h=6244067d26&badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479 2. https://player.vimeo.com/video/821990466?h=baabb3e2eb&badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479 3. https://player.vimeo.com/video/776098426?h=2b9f88674f&badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479 ## Source Pages - https://baoyangchen.com/Forest-Theorem-One