“Worldmaking, Participation, and Learning: Experiments in Collaborative Creation” presented by de Campo
Symposium:
- ISEA2011: 17th International Symposium on Electronic Art
- More presentations from ISEA2011:
Session Title:
- The Volatility and Stability of WorldMaking as Techné
Presentation Title:
- Worldmaking, Participation, and Learning: Experiments in Collaborative Creation
Presenter(s):
Venue(s):
Abstract:
Panel: The Volatility and Stability of WorldMaking as Techné
This paper will discuss a recent project realised with a mixed group of participants, and its evolving followup. Varia Zoosystematica Profundorum began as the idea of modeling (hypothetical) communication between creatures to be invented. Apart from acquiring practice in electronics, programming, and mechanical building, the guiding principle was having the team develop much of the concept jointly. Thus, many aspects of the project evolved from team discussions including just-in-time coding experiments occurring across several interrelated courses. Once the context (the Deep Sea) was decided on, the participants began to invent a variety of highly individual creatures, which share common brain functioning; communication between them is by telepathy, and expressed by sound, light and movement. In essence, we loosely combined notions from works like Gordon Pask’s Colloquy of Mobiles with a working methodology inspired by David Tudor’s approach in evolving Rainforest. Given the positive responses from all participants, the approach is extended further in a followup project: Here, we start by looking at historic instances of cybernetic thinking and futurology, and will create a loose performative context for individual works involving systems such as playable chaotic synthesisers for audio and visuals – again, details will emerge from the flow of the project, and group improvisation (which we consider a cybernetic activity) will happen at different time scales, from planning to building to eventual performances.