SWIM-SWARM-GLIDE
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PROJECT OVERVIEW
Working on a modest budget, aCp activated a looming void in the central stair of a new biotechnology building with three 8’ diameter discs, across which projected communities of polymorphic objects swim, swarm and glide — their movements reflecting of the collective life of the building itself. To populate the projection discs, aCp created hundreds of animated artificial life units using research materials from the facility’s own labs. The artwork combines behavioral software and real-time massing of traffic on the stairs to influence the units’ behavior along the lines of three distinct cellular motility models: swim (goal-oriented movement, solo or in teams), swarm (massive collective movement) or glide (exploratory solo movement). Engaging the facility’s purpose as an innovation incubator, and envisioning the roles that action/reaction/interaction play along the collaborative arc of the research process, the artwork imagines its host building on its own terms: as a growth medium.