Re-Generate
Unlike most artworks, Re-Generate invites visitors to touch the screen.
As you push into the screen with your hands, you feel simulated earth tremors powered by seismologic data from the KNMI. An Arduino and small vibrating motors attached to the screen where used to achieve this. The work uses two types of cellular automata, transforming neighboring pixels of individual pixels according to the rules of an algorithm, the same happens to the pixels in the artwork that represent the (living) environment of people. It is up to the participants of the work to choose to take over and change their environment by making movements with their hands on a stretchable screen, or to let the virtual environment take over by not touching the screen and looking at it from a distance. This experience of influencing the behavior of a system, is symbolic of the impact humans have on nature. Through human intervention, the work shows an immediate effect and there is a visible intrusion and influence on the living system.
By being able to perceive seismological data with your sense of touch you come into contact with earthquakes that have taken place on the Groningen gas field in a new and direct way. The dataset that is used is an overview of earthquakes over the past two years with a minimum magnitude of 2.0, processed by KNMI's RRSM system. The magnitude of an earthquake indicates how much energy was released in the earthquake. In addition to driving the vibrations on the canvas, the data is visualized with shapes that influence the evolution of the living algorithms. This creates an interplay between cellular automata, participants of the installation and earthquakes that have occurred in the past.
Commissioned for Gardening 01-06 to 31-07-2022 Landhuis Amelisweerd, Utrecht (NL) Co-produced by Creative Coding Utrecht
Seismologic data: dataplatform.knmi.nl/nl/dataset/aardbevingen-cijfers-1 Data preparation: Niels Janssen
Software: Touchdesigner Cellular Automata code: Workshop: Creating Generative Visuals with Complex Systems by Simon Alexander-Adams
Music: Tectonic by Micah Frank
Made possible by: Creative Coding Utrecht Mondriaan Fund Creative Industries Fund Stichting Stokroos
