The technology behind the encounter
A soft body in your hands. Living neurons connected through a biological computer.
Platform profile · Cortical Labs
Biology and electronics,
in conversation.
The CL1 is Cortical Labs’ biological computing platform. It combines cultured neurons, an electrical interface and the equipment needed to maintain the culture. The cells grow in a nutrient solution over a chip that can both deliver electrical stimulation and record neural activity.
Its software connects that activity to an experimental environment: signals go in, neural responses are measured, and those responses can change what happens next. This feedback cycle is called a closed loop.
Cortical Labs describes the CL1 as a self-contained system for recording, running applications and supporting living cultures, designed to sustain neurons for up to six months.
Platform description: Cortical Labs — CL1.
Moult’s proposed connection
The project design places touch and movement sensors in Moult’s body. With cloud access, the living culture remains in a CL1 elsewhere; the creature you hold is its connected physical interface.
01 · In your hands
Touch & movement sensors
02 · Translate
Maps touch to electrical input
03 · On the CL1
Electrodes stimulate & record
Sound returns to Moult
Software makes the interaction audible. You respond with your next touch.
This is Moult’s intended architecture. The sensor mappings, sound design and measures of learning are part of the project’s development.
The connection
Cortical Cloud provides remote access to CL1 systems, allowing developers to run experiments without maintaining their own biological laboratory. Cortical Labs describes support for networked sensor inputs and outputs, browser-based notebooks and a Python SDK.
For Moult, that offers a route to connect a body in a gallery or community space to neurons maintained on the platform.
Explore Cortical Cloud ↗The interface
Cortical Labs’ Python API gives developers access to recordings, electrical stimulation and algorithms that respond to detected neural activity. Its simulator also lets developers work on software before using a physical CL1.
Moult’s own software must define how touch becomes input and how measured activity or stimulation patterns become sound. A purr is an artistic translation of the encounter.
Read the developer guide ↗The question remains open
Recording activity and observing adaptation are things an experiment can measure. Moult asks what those changes might mean when the input comes from people offering care.
Words such as “purr,” “comfort” and “discomfort” describe the artwork’s expressive language. They are not, by themselves, evidence of subjective feelings. Recognition, speech and the later phases of Moult remain questions to investigate.
Follow the stages of Moult’s development →