Holon: a cybernetic interface for bio-semiotics
This is an incremental work in interactive art and bio-semiotics, targeting artists and researchers interested in cybernetic systems and environmental interaction.
The paper presents 'Holon', an interactive artwork consisting of 130 autonomous cybernetic organisms that generate and respond to sound in collaboration with the natural environment, installed at a heritage-listed dock in Melbourne.
This paper presents an interactive artwork, "Holon", a collection of 130 autonomous, cybernetic organisms that listen and make sound in collaboration with the natural environment. The work was developed for installation on water at a heritage-listed dock in Melbourne, Australia. Conceptual issues informing the work are presented, along with a detailed technical overview of the implementation. Individual holons are of three types, inspired by biological models of animal communication: composer/generators, collector/critics and disruptors. Collectively, Holon integrates and occupies elements of the acoustic spectrum in collaboration with human and non-human agents.