emergence
that consciousness manifests from trillions of neurons that either fire or don't fire has intrigued me for some time now. in a previous life, i had dreams of becoming a neuroscientist. though i aspire to be an artist, the line between art & science grows ever narrower these days.
there is a word and a science for studying the way complex systems arise out of simple pieces of that make up the system--emergence. i first learned of the term from mike referring to how things in proximity have an influence on each other, but the idea is not new to me. women living together will synchronize their menstrual cycles. i've had two friends synchronize their cycles with mine--does that mean i have strong pheromones?
i am reading and finding interesting one of two books on the topic, Sync: How Order Emerges from Chaos in the Universe, Nature, and Daily Life. the other is Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software. what do fireflies in asia, women's monthly cycles, cities, google and the human brain have in common? a lot apparently. already i am excitedly planning an interactive piece exploring this with mike. i'd like to start with a simulation that can take on a life of its own. aside from programming and other technical challenges, we have to figure out how to put together 1000 leds (at the minimum) that are individually programmable and not cost prohibitive. of course, we, like the scientists in the book, will start with "syncing" two. processing seems to be the perfect environment for preliminary tests.
but first, i must solder more leds for my my other project. since i have made little progress on the photograph of my father, i have decided to give myself a deadline of completing the soldering for all the resistors by the end of the month. that's some odd 12,000 resistors give or take a few. it doesn't seem completely unreasonable, but i calculated that i would need to solder about 480 a day to reach that goal. one must have loft goals.
oh, and there is an excellent podcast from august of a radio lab show from WNYC on emergence.
there is a word and a science for studying the way complex systems arise out of simple pieces of that make up the system--emergence. i first learned of the term from mike referring to how things in proximity have an influence on each other, but the idea is not new to me. women living together will synchronize their menstrual cycles. i've had two friends synchronize their cycles with mine--does that mean i have strong pheromones?
i am reading and finding interesting one of two books on the topic, Sync: How Order Emerges from Chaos in the Universe, Nature, and Daily Life. the other is Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software. what do fireflies in asia, women's monthly cycles, cities, google and the human brain have in common? a lot apparently. already i am excitedly planning an interactive piece exploring this with mike. i'd like to start with a simulation that can take on a life of its own. aside from programming and other technical challenges, we have to figure out how to put together 1000 leds (at the minimum) that are individually programmable and not cost prohibitive. of course, we, like the scientists in the book, will start with "syncing" two. processing seems to be the perfect environment for preliminary tests.
but first, i must solder more leds for my my other project. since i have made little progress on the photograph of my father, i have decided to give myself a deadline of completing the soldering for all the resistors by the end of the month. that's some odd 12,000 resistors give or take a few. it doesn't seem completely unreasonable, but i calculated that i would need to solder about 480 a day to reach that goal. one must have loft goals.
oh, and there is an excellent podcast from august of a radio lab show from WNYC on emergence.
Labels: art
posted by bluepupae at 10:17 PM
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