BIOTOPE is a dynamic listening and performative environment; a system of three dimensional sound control. Conceived and developed by sound artists Borut Savski (Slovenia) and John Grzinich (USA), the BIOTOPE project explores the possibilities of how an installation may act as a medium for a human-mechanical-audio system relationship. Installation was premiered in June (14th to 28th) 1999 in Kapelica Gallery, Ljubljana/ Slovenia. The idea of using acoustically fed-back microphones goes back to 1994. John and Borut met at ARS ELECTRONICA 98 for the first time and found common grounds in certain principles which now result as a BIOTOPE project.

BIOTOPE synthesizes elements of technology with concepts of autonomous organic systems to be used as a tool for acoustic exploration. Sound acts as the 'life' of the system, being both the originating source and the resulting outcome heard by the listener. The installation is maintained in its dynamic balance by a midi sequencing program, that has the ability to take a signal from any of the 12 inputs and re-channel it to any one of the 6 speakers in the room.

The sound originates from various objects and devices such as microphones, droning wires and electronics with a performative option of including two people/sound artists as additional instigators. The resulting sound entering the room from the speakers affects the devices (as well as the listeners) and is directly fed back into the system via the input sources. The continually reprocessed sound becomes the changing force, allowing the listener to perceive the evolution of the sound in time.

The BIOTOPE project has grown out of the artists' interest in developing models of general systems and theories of autopoietic, or self-referencing systems as they relate to biology, technology and the social sciences. The systems model states that: "life is a system of self-organization, a developmental unfolding at progressively higher levels of differentiation and organized complexity. [This process], more over, is dynamic rather than static, open not closed and searches spontaneously and actively for stimulation rather than passively waiting to respond."(Bertalanffy, 1952).

This is furthered by autopoietic theory, adding the cognitive field of the observer, which is "a consequence of circularity and complexity in the form of any system whose behavior includes maintenance of that selfsame form." (Maturana & Varela, 1980). These ideas have had a significant impact on restructuring many areas of scientific research in the last half of this century, yet remain unfamiliar to much of the general public.

The BIOTOPE project is not an attempt to simulate life (as does artificial intelligence). It is an exploration the qualitative value of congruent change in system interactions which becomes the aesthetical imperative of the artist and the observer. In the whole of this complete audio environment, the listener as 'cognifier' becomes as much an aspect of the system as does the creator. The BIOTOPE system allows the visitor to enter the dynamic process via sound - sound field is the cohesive element.(Borut Savski)