Mesh was a sci-art research and development project that focused on the subject of self-organising networks. The theme has been investigated through the creation of an emergent 3D software model which interfaces onto the data environment of the internet or a computer hard-disk. The visualised network takes it’s evolving form from the interaction between the internal organising algorithm of the software and the structure and content of the source data.
The work presents a browsable environment, a network of linked imagery which grow out of the software’s exposure to structured image data. Applied to a user’s hard-disk the software traces personal image strata, which might include the internet cache and digital photos. The constant acquiring, shuffling, comparing and discarding of visual material acts as a playful metaphor of human cognitive functions.
As a science and art project the work draws from systems theory ideas about the interface between different types of self-organising networks and the nature, and significance of this conceptual model. For example, a biological organism can be viewed as a metabolic self-organising system interfaced to its environment, itself a self-organising system.
Mesh was made in collaboration with Jonathan Mackenzie.
