Debug
What happens when you let nature interact with technology? You get an experimental machine that transforms the movements of a few insects into beautiful patterns printed as posters as fast as the insects perform. Obstacles that are put in the insects’ way influence their behaviour, and give them their design brief so to speak. 400 posters created and counting. Find out more at Edhv.
Process
The insects move inside of the box. The webcam sends a video feed to the openFrameworks application which runs an advanced blob detection program. The openFrameworks application then sends the data to the Processing application which in turn processes the information and draws the movements of the insects, choosing one color for leftward movements and another for rightward movements. Circles are placed when the insect sits still for a longer period of time. The size of the circle is determined by the amount of time the insect rests. A PDF poster is then generated after the insects meet a predetermined requirement. This poster is automatically printed behind the installation. After the PDF poster is saved, the application automatically restarts with randomly selected color presets.
Press
Debug as well as Bits 'n Pieces, the exhibition it is part of, have received quite some press. We were mentioned on Treehugger, Switched, Core77, FastCompany, and written about in the New York Times.
