Kaan Orkan Pişkin

Hexaquatic Entropy (32-Bit)

What if encryption didn’t start in code, but in life itself? The fish in the aquarium resemble guarding animals. Like guard dogs, they help to secure but differ in what and the way they protect. The fish assist in generating complex encrypted passkeys from their unique and unrepeatable movement. Their coordinates are constantly captured and processed further to create a passkey. By conventional methods, it would take years for the passcode to be cracked, and only if the fish were frozen in time.

This work explores the relationship between organic movement and digital systems by asking: Can life itself become an encryption mechanism? Can everything be simply reduced to data? How far can life be abstracted before it loses its value and meaning? Fish aren’t random, they’re alive and conscious. And yet their motion offers entropy no computer in our current state of technology can replicate. On one canvas: a grid visualising the livestreamed positions of the fish, each mapped and encoded. On the other: a grid which translates these positions into hexadecimal values. Each of the 32 values form a cryptographic key, generated by life in motion. 

This key fades over time, etched in phosphorescent pigment, best expressed by the German term Flüchtigkeit, meaning: volatility, fleetingness. Can a machine ever truly grasp the entropy of something that’s still alive? Can we?

About Kaan

Hello Operator. In my work as a creative technologist, I bring technological fantasies to life. From designing machines that sense the body, ecosystems which are driven by code and light, or composing immersive soundscapes, I’m always shaping spaces that listen and respond.

Storytelling is at the heart of my work. I often find myself bringing interfaces alive through speculative frameworks. This serves as a playground which forms the base for the most rewarding part of my practice — play. 

When I’m exploring combinations of different mediums to forge an ‘unstable system,’ it often feels like playing with Legos. The outcome of my work is always determined by a holistic approach that encourages self-discovery through play. The spaces I create are an invitation to let thoughts wander — a space in which you are not asked to follow my path but invited to trace your own. 

Find Kaan's work during ArtEZ Finals 2025,
as part of I'm already there exhibition, at Oude Kraan 26, Arnhem,
Design Art Technology Arnhem (DAT)

Deze pagina is voor het laatst gewijzigd op 23 juni 2025

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