to stand in awe and wonder is to understand in a very specific way, even if that understanding cannot be described. the subjective experience of wonder is a message to the rational mind that the object of wonder is being perceived and understood in ways other than the rational.
Gary Zukav - The Dancing Wu Li Masters

hostprods is the creative alias of Andy Gracie, a multi-disciplinary artist making work with technological and natural systems. Projects by Andy Gracie (hostprods) feature elements of installation, sound, video and biological practice and involve the convergence of technological and natural systems. The underlying focus of hostprods activities involves a study of organic intelligence, emergent systems and the placing of technological agents in situations where they are able to share information and behaviors with natural systems, to expose the machinic nature of networked ecologies. The work expresses a special interest in what takes place at the point where these two systems are mediated through each other and what bridges can be revealed or constructed. Many hostprods investigations concern the use of forms of Artificial Intelligence to build spontaneous communications between machine and living systems (insects, plants, cells...) to allow new language spaces and emergent relationships to develop.

The work uses a strong foundation of scientific theory and practice to question our relationships with environment and the notion of the ‘other’. Although many of the techniques used and areas being explored in the work are rooted in and inspired by science, it is not intended that the work should have to practice according to its strict rules. Instead it maintains a wish to illustrate poetry and wonder whilst simultaneously offering a critique of widely accepted notions of research and scientific progress.