Better together?

Creatures raised by Nataliia Kaminskaia, Emma Boom and Larissa Boerenstam

╰──╮Meet our creatures╭──╯

Zip

aka the curious one

Rip

aka the jiggly one

Kip

aka the stubborn one

Dip

aka the uncertain one

Jip

aka the sick one

You will see them wandering around, all doing their own thing. What happens when they come together? Can creatures create something... together?

What happens when they come together?

When together, can they make something bigger than themselves?

"Together we can do more than when alone" - Zip

This year we followed the Artificial Creatures course for our Media Technology masters program. For our final project, we wanted to showcase the quality of togetherness.

We came up with the idea, because we were all interested in the concept of swarms and creating multiple creatures. We were inspired by artistic swimming teams. One swimmer looks cool, okay, but when you put multiple artistic swimmers in a pool, they hypnotise you. We were intrigued with this idea of how one cannot do much by itself, however, when with multiple, they can do so much more! Our creatures, they can dance, they can sync, they can actually create something. Their collaboration unifies them into one.

You might ask yourself: are we really not supposed to be alone? Because the creatures function when they wander. What does being together add?

Multiple creatures together can make interesting movements that weren’t available before.
Synchrony suggests cooperation [1, 2]. Synchronous activity increases positive emotions and social connection too.

For the robotics nerds among us: we built the creatures with mecanum wheels to ensure they can move in all directions and used bluetooth to have them connect to one computer. We added RGB LEDs to add an extra dimension to the experience, with not only movement showing togetherness, but also using colour palettes.

Obstacles

There were some obstacles along the way. Both physical and figuratively. Some creatures just like to divert from their path, some get hurt and stop moving one wheel, others feel strong connections towards walls. They showcase their togetherness nonetheless by shining their lights.

References

[1] Wiltermuth, S. S., & Heath, C. (2009). Synchrony and cooperation. Psychological science, 20(1), 1-5.

[2] Mogan, R., Fischer, R., & Bulbulia, J. A. (2017). To be in synchrony or not? A meta-analysis of synchrony's effects on behavior, perception, cognition and affect. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 72, 13-20.