Well its back to the grindstone in studio...We have been working towards our first pinup with Francois which is later this week. The class has been divided into groups, for researching various topics (swarming, robotics, termites, scripting, etc) I am in the swarming group. I have mostly been focusing on applications of swarming, especially in the military, and new experiments with robot swarming. Pretty cool stuff. The craziest fact that I found is this:

[i]One of the problems with this sort of technology, that also
occurs in the real world, is that an unforseen circumstance
throws the system into chaos. When ants become isolated
from their group, they can end up running around in circles,
following an ever strengthening trail of pheromone until they
die of exhaustion.

Circular mill in army ants: a circle of ants continuously
following each other round and round in circles until death
(Schneirla). Beebe (1921) observed a mill in
Guyana that measured 1200 feet in circumference with a
circuit time for each ant of about 2½ hours. The mill persisted
for two days, with ever increasing numbers of dead bodies
littering the route, but eventually a few workers straggled
from the trail thus breaking the cycle, and the raid marched
off into the forest.





All I have to say is WTF!!!!!!!!

It is interesting though, to consider a sort of pheromone-method of urban planning. That is where I am spinning off for the first exploration that we are each developing (the creation of a tangled pile of bio-noodles that will eventually move us towards some sort of urban fragment)

Oh and I am learning some Rhinoscript. It is pretty easy so far, but I am not doing anything too tricky with it yet. Once I actually get somewhere with it, I will put up some pics.

The school is hosting a symposium and exhibition beginning tomorrow called BOOM: New Architecture in Philadelphia. It should be really interesting, especially as I am planning to stay here in Franklintown after graduation.