Probe Swarm - updated thesis idea
My initial thesis idea, networking together lamps and noisemakers over an internet bridge, while technically complex, was somehow unsatisfying.
So I have changed it.
My new idea still involves networked objects with multiple sensing and output capabilities: however, now they are "probes", designed to identify intelligence and relay their discoveries to a remote location. By operating as a locally-networked swarm, they are able to coordinate and increase their effectiveness.
I want to reference some ideas that have long fascinated me:
* difficult communication, over long distances or timescales
* probes and exploration
* identifying intelligence
* identifying a message
* science fiction
I want to highlight multiple points of communication: amongst the probes, between the probes and their "base", and most importantly, between the probes and the spectator (being probed).
Also interesting are the potential aesthetic references: I have always been fascinated by the various Soviet and US space probes, and especially, how their design seems influenced by cultural factors. (eg. Soviet Venera Probes)
I expect the project will end up being humorous: machines designed to detect intelligence and encourage interaction are so weird and hostile-looking that they deter the same.
A potential experiment would be to set them up in public space, as if they had just landed, and see what response they elicit.
References (for aesthetics) include:
Björn Schülke
Michael Joaquin Grey
U Ram Choe