Explorations in Botanical metaphor for Information Age Phenomena

RADICLE: The first root that comes from a plant is called the radicle.

materials

Synopsis

Adaptive ecological simulation generated in real-time using botanical metaphorical frameworks to interpret, process, and map real ecosystem data to audio, visual, and semantic simulation parameters. A generative audio/visual composition that represents the internal processes of CNSI/Elings as well as it's role in the local ecosystem.

Input Data

Building power usage, input and output, each room and the whole building
Dollars (per year, month, day, second) of cost and investment into and out-of each room and the building (follow the money)
Computer network traffic (application layer and network layer), room-to-room, into and out of the building
Weather, atmospheric, astronomic and geological measurements (build on STEM)
Human activity from keycards, infrared detectors, microphones, and cameras
Metaphorical frameworks: algorithmic mappings between data and simulation parameters
ALL DATA, EVERYTHING EVER

External Form

A plant sculpture and/or dynamic content wall visualizing the ecological simulation
Something that looks like growing and interacting trees, roots, vines, networks, nerves, ...
Something with unknown, unplanned, emergent behaviours
Lord knows. Let's wait and see.

Internal Form

Wires.. A data-collection system, fanning out to every room and hallway, exploring the building.
Electronics.. Sensor nodes that do the business of specific data collection.
Server.. A computer that processes data and makes decisions about the external form.

Metaphorical Vocabulary

Nutrient (n): Data that is accessible and critical to survival. The things that you eat that determine your nature.
Root (v): To collect data. To explore and invest in a physical or conceptual space. To make decisions. To manifest life and will.
Root (n): The part that holds on to nutrients and represents exploration of unseen, unmapped spaces.
Flower (v): To express self as an interpretation and processing of collected data. To grow outwardly and attract.
Flower (n): The visible form that comes of function. The part that expresses self and attempts to spread seeds.
Leaf (n): The visible part that collects energy.
Bacteria (n): One that is not you that you depend on. One that does what you cannot.

Materials

Wireless Sensor Nodes can be used to collect data outside of the building.
Electroluminescent Panels are available now and could be used to create a medium-resolution display out of the wall.
Organic LEDs are newer, brighter, and better than normal LEDs at creating diffuse light and supposedly they can be made into flat panels, so they could be used in the same way as Electroluminescent Panels.
Photovoltaic (solar) cells represent photosynthesis, sustainability, and efficiency. These could be the leaves of a sculpture or placed on the wall.
Led Strands could be used to represent channels of communication or resource transmission within a plant sculpture.
Electroluminescent Wire could also be used in this way.

Related Work

STEM (Sustainable Technologies for Experimental Media and Materials) is an MAT student-driven initiative to add to the building a research center. We already have equipment on the roof for collecting weather and atmospheric data.
Ecotone started as a collaboration between Angus Forbes and Karl Yerkes in the Fall of 2008. It explored emergent behaviour in ecological simulations.
Rewt is a 3d plant-root growth animator. It is a work-in-progress by Karl Yerkes