Flocking Messengers

nteractive Swarm Orchestra. Proceedings of the Generative Art Conference. Milano, Italy, 2006.

Flocking Messengers is an entirely new type of real-time communication tool, which 

utilizes a technique from artificial life to allow two remote persons to speak to each 

other. Messages that travel through a computer network, cross a virtual 3D space that 

is inhabited by flocking agents. Attracted by the speaker's motions, agents approach 

and memorize his/her voice. Subsequently, they move towards the opposite space 

boundary and recite the speakers' message in their own voice. The rules controlling 

each agent are simple, but the reactions of the entire system are complex and 

unpredictable since they combine acoustic and visual interaction with collective 

behaviour. Agents possess their own emotional state, which they occasionally 

express through their own words. Thereby they guide the visitor's reactions and 

increase his/her enjoyment of the communication.