Morphogenesis (Greek μορφογενετική)
("origin of form")
describes the development of organisms, organs and organelles, and other structures and features in the course of the evolution of living things such as humans, animals, plants, prokaryotes, and viruses.
What is a form and what is the significance of form in relation to perception and subsequently to cognition?
Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Erich Sackmann's (TU Munich) research on the cell revealed that proteins can recognize shapes and change their shape based on this recognition – react to what they recognize. So there is a "feeling" on the molecular level. So, since perception interacts with form, the question arises whether form itself is already a means of communication. And what does it mean that perception takes place and decisions can be made in my cells independent of my consciousness?
From 2012 to 2017, I had a series of conversations with biophysicist Prof. Sackmann (TUM) about morphogenesis and evolution.
I asked Prof. Sackmann where the diversity of forms in nature comes from and how and why forms evolved the way they did and not differently. From a scientific point of view, is there a concept, a system, that underlies the origin of the living world of forms? He answered: "It all depends on the forces, on the stability and efficiency but there is still a big margin.
Nature is playing. She sings a cosmic melody."
The series "MORPHOGENESIS" explores the forms and surfaces – skin, physicality, inside, outside. It is an approach to a formal language of the living and to the search for the moment of change.The evolutionary leap is a singular moment, where by chance, after many attempts and variations of development, an intelligent solution for a previously unsolvable task emerges. The life-threatening crisis is overcome and from now on the solution is inscribed in the hereditary material and will be passed on to all descendant living beings...Once the innovation is in the world, it is passed on. And often it triggers a new crisis in other living beings. In this way, life continues to swing from one crisis to the next, from the first heap of molecules to increasingly complex organisms, playing perpetually.
Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Erich Sackmanns is considered the founder of biophysics in Germany. He is a former full professor of experimental physics, known for his research on the physical basis of self-organization and the function of artificial and biological membranes as well as the physics of the cell.