Heterogenesis: Collectively emergent autonomy

Heterogenesis is an interactive sound and tactile installation consisting of a group of autonomous artificial agents that collectively generate and evolve a soundscape in response to one another and to the presence of human participants. Taking the form of long pillar-like sculptures and forming a rudimentary artificial neural network, the agents respond to their environment in three ways: (1) by altering their generated sounds, (2) by communicating with one another so as to “warn” of human presence nearby, and (3) by producing an inaudible acoustic pressure field that “pushes” participants as they approach. Heterogenesis represents an attempt to manifest complex emergent behavior through a rich set of interactions with autonomous systems - both human and machine.