Here’s my prototype applet.

The final project will look like the prototype pretty much exactly–except the buttons and circles will move and interact differently.

The user (or audience, hehe) controls the “Queen” organism, represented in the prototype by the large circle. There are three types of ways the “Queen” can interact with the environment, as a breeder, hunter, or the prey. The user can select which environment in the top left corner.

As a Breeder, the user can spawn smaller organisms (at most 15). This isn’t in the prototype, but the smaller organisms will then follow the larger one around in a queue. The Queen will only be able to breed if it is large enough.

As a Hunter, the Queen can swallow smaller organisms. If it swallows an organisms it gets larger. The smaller organisms will avoid the larger organism.

As Prey, the smaller organisms will swarm and chase the Queen. The smaller organisms will get bigger the longer they touch the Queen, and the Queen will get smaller.

So, I suppose my first question is if this simulation counts as organic simulation. I mostly was interested in doing this because I wanted to experiment with the behaviors we talked about in class. I also wondered about my interface.

I’m also wondering how I could make this more interesting, or if there is already enough going on. I was considering making it a game so that another organism could become the Queen and the object of the game would be to remain as the Queen.

I was staring at the snow out of my window yesterday and decide to make myself a curtain with laser-cut patterns of snow, or something like that. The next few hours I collected some patterns I remember seeing from MoMA and elsewhere.

Compare to drawing vector patterns and scatter them randomly over the window, I am more interested in exploring how plant leaves cover a surface to maximize photosynthesis area. The idea dates back to last autumn, where I fantasized a self-regulating curtain that grows where sunshine is, and withers where there is not (see video sketch Mark Gross and I made together: plant a curtain).

The final approach is a processing program composed of these parts: