Emerging Traces

Emerging Traces (2015). Autonomous artbots

In Emerging Traces two autonomous robots move over a canvas, controlled by simple algorithms. Doing so they leave coloured traces. The traces they leave behind influence the movements of each other and themselves as they react on the colours they perceive. This gives rise to a symbiosis between the two robots in the constantly changing environment of the canvas on which they exist. Because of the feedback within this system, the initially predictable patterns slowly transform into chaos. The result of this are emergent art works consisting of colourful lines and abstract shapes, of which no two are the same.

In collaboration with Jelger Kroese en Lise Stork

The installation has been on show at Discovery Festival (NEMO, Amsterdam), Eureka! Festival (Gashouder, Amsterdam), Open voor de Toekomst (Stadsgehoorzaal, Leiden), Festival Aangeschoten Wild (Delft), IIS Debate on Interdisciplinarity Amsterdam (CREA! Amsterdam), Volkshotel, Habitat (Radion, Amsterdam) and Leiden University’s Studium Generale (Hooglandse Kerk, Leiden)

One of the artworks is on permanent display on the second floor of Science Park Amsterdam.

This timelapse was created at Festival Aangeschoten Wild in Delft, 2016: