[ISEA2012] Paper: Angus Forbes, Tobias Hollerer & George Legrady – Expressive Energy: The Fluid Automata Project

Abstract

Fluid Automata is a series of projects involving the interactive and stylized representation of a fluid system using custom image processing techniques. Together the hardware-accelerated fluid system and image processing techniques allow the user to create expressive representations of dynamic energy. Through the use of tablet computers (tablet), one or more users interact with the fluid system via multi-touch gestures. The technique has been used in a series of projects that have been shown in a variety of environments involving one or more people: as a multimedia art installation, within a 3D virtual reality environment, as a visual instrument in musical settings, and as a standalone generative art application for a tablet computer. This paper describes the basic algorithms governing the Fluid Automata technique as well as some of the installation configurations, and moreover explores the connection between aesthetic concerns and scientific visualization.

Intro
Fluid Automata is an interactive generative art system that explores the relationship of aesthetics and scientific visualization, and the interplay between collaboration and discovery. The Fluid Automata system invites users to create dynamic generative art via responsive tactile gestures using a tablet. The aesthetic experience includes both controlling the system through multi-touch and also adjusting a wide range of parameters to discover new patterns and visual properties. The user manipulates both the underlying system and its visual representation.

  • Angus Forbes, Tobias Hollerer & George Legrady, UC Santa Barbara, US, Media Arts & Technology Program

Full text (PDF) p. 65-70