Emotive Ecosystems

 
 
 
These artworks simulate complex adaptive systems, such as those found in natural ecosystems, but also in our own bodies and in our relationships. They play out distinct stories through the nearly infinite scenarios that unfold. Once started, the movements are impossible to predict and unlikely to repeat.

 

 
 

Light Touch

The interactions between the two characters lean towards harmony, with algorithmic restrictions on how the environment's boundaries affect them. As a result, the figures move fluidly while navigating the space. They adjust to boundaries as they encounter them and continue their movement, with resilience. Over time, each figure seems to have a sense of purpose that necessarily involves the other.

Originally built and programmed at Arroz Estudios in Lisbon. Exhibited at the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe as part of Currents New Media 2022.

Video by Daniele Grosso

 
 

Volition

The two figures are placed in an environment that consistently nudges them to a central point. When they come into proximity, they repel one another, moving in opposing directions. This creates a perpetual loop of attraction and repulsion, with the characters continuously adjusting their paths in response to each other and the external pressures.

Programmed and built during a residency in Mexico City, exhibited at Jo-Hs Gallery.

 
 

Prism & Inland

The characters are consistently drawn to the perimeter of their space, guided by attraction points that circulate in both clockwise and counterclockwise directions along the boundaries. One character has greater mass and momentum, whereas the other encounters resistance due to heightened friction. The weightier character often sweeps the other along its trajectory. The more resistive character halts intermittently, seemingly anticipating its next involuntary journey.

Programmed and built in Chicago.

 
 

Forecast

The figures share their environment with six large gears, which respond to their contact in different ways: while some gears offer resistance and friction on contact with either figure, others only interact with one. The two characters tend to stay separated from one another for extended periods of time. On the infrequent occasions when their paths do converge, their meetings are brief.

Built in Chicago for Thomas Masters Gallery.