Augmented Systems: Explorations in Complex, Emergent, and Generative Systems Workshop with Alexander Jones Gross (University of Main) :: March 25-26, 2010; 6:30 - 9:30 pm + March 27; 10:00 am - 6:00 pm :: CIANT - Art laboratory, Kubelíkova 27, 130 00 Praha 3, Czech Republic :: Zdarma / V angličtině / For free / In English — Please register at ivan.nemeth [at] ciant.cz.

Complex, indeterminate, and chaotic systems exist everywhere we look from the flight paths of birds to the growth patterns of plants to the formation of clouds. These systems are not simply random, they are complex systems bounded by discrete natural laws. Through study and investigation much can be learned about how these systems work. Once an artist understands how a system functions they can begin to alter the rules of the system to create their own types of output. Meaning is always in the eye of the beholder, but the strategies this workshop will explore attempt to uncover new ways for artists to put their messages into the world. The natural world is communicating with us all the time, through phenomena generated by these natural systems. This workshop seeks to explore the ways in which artists can learn to speak with the same kind of mysterious power.

This workshop will actively explore the possibilities of several types of natural/complex system programming, particularly those with strong potentials for interesting sorts of manipulation, and augmentation of their systems. These include models of emergent behavior, cellular automata, and genetic algorithms. Projects developed during this workshop will utilize the Processing programming language. Some basic programming experience will be required for this workshop, but the workshop should be suitable for artists/programmers with basic to advanced programming experience. Instead of focusing primarily on development of programming skills, workshop discussions will focus on concepts of natural and complex systems, how these system can be modeled using processing, and how these systems can be modified.

We recommend that you attend the whole workshop.

Support: Activities of CIANT have been co-funded by the City of Prague and the Municipality of Prague 3. This presentation has been funded with support from the European Commission, within Culture Programme, CO-ME-DI-A project. This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which maybe made of the information contained therein.