miNim | circulizer

Circulizer ◌ Spring 2013

Circluizer is a fully customizable Processing sketch based on the ideas of swarming and flocking. There are a number of circles and you assign simple behaviors to them and then depending on those behaviors they act autonomously and show complex swarm-like patterns. Circulizer lends itself to the notions of collective behavior and self-organization. The swarm is formed by two classes of variables, internal and external, which Ashby (Design for a Brain, 1960) calls variables and parameters respectively. For example, in a fish swarm we have mutual attraction (schooling) as a variable and external repulsive stimulus, which repels the fish, as a parameter. The name 'Circulizer' was chosen as this tool uses just circles for its flexibility to represent different generic organisms. The application/sketch comes in two different versions, 2D and 3D, and can be used for different purposes, such as:

1. Observing intelligent collective behaviors from a number of rather dumb entities
2. A generative painting/form-finding tool
3. A visualization tool, e.g. music visualizer
4. An interactive/virtual reality tool

Fish Swarm

It is defined by these variables and parameters:

1. Each fish has a speed and direction
2. Each fish gets attracted to any other fish inside its sight
3. Each fish adjusts its direction and speed with other closeby fish
4. Each fish moves away if another fish enters its close proximity zone to avoid collision
5. Each fish rotates when approaching the defined boundary
6. Each fish runs away from an external repulsive stimulus, mouse click simulates the repulsive stimulus

An Imaginary Flocking

It is a rework of Casey Reas' Process 4 and is defined by these variables and parameters:

1. Each circle has a speed and direction
2. Each circle moves away from an overlapping circle
3. Each circle rotates while touching another one
4. Each circle is constrained to the defined boundary
5. Each circle runs away from an external repulsive stimulus, mouse click simulates the repulsive stimulus

Music Visualizer and Generative Painting

The application can be used as a music visualizer to create generative paitings.

Interactive/VR Painting

Further development of the application included Kinect and head-tracking integration which resulted in an interactive/virtual reality painting piece. It was exhibited at Tempus Fugit in May 2013.