TABOO - TRANSGRESSION - TRANSCENDENCE

Every evening, the Plantalyzer robot slowly rolls along the heating pipes between rows of tomato plants in the greenhouse. During its 6 hour ride, it snaps images every 10 centimeters with its 6 cameras. After their capture, it uses AI to analyse the visual images for data, identifying the number of tomatoes and their colour. The grower receives a report containing the current harvestable yield, classified into 12 categories of ripeness.

Usually only ever glimpsed by machines, these operational images1 point to largely invisible and invisibilized data infrastructures, which condition bodies well beyond the scope of agricultural production. When at its most functional, the integration of algorithmic approaches into the care for living beings appears seamless and desirable, and yet it is a tool of biopower: despite its intended benevolence, its logic of mastery must be experienced, acknowledged, and examined.

So, what is it like to be the tomato, cared for by “machines of loving grace”?

The work Operational Bodies delves into the Plantalyzer robot’s reference image dataset, generously shared by the company HortiKey. Unlike in cinema or photography, here neither time nor space is fixed; rather, as is distinctive of datafication, the (tomato) subjects are captured in a multi-dimensional array. The straddling point of view conjured by the artwork thus becomes a vehicle for unboxing the operations of operational images.