neonascent

This little guy is the prototype for organic-looking latex “creatures” that plug into any computer via USB, and play and frollic with each other online. Think Tomogochi, then think a persistent online world in which they interact, using the modelled behaviour system of Boids (simulating the flocking behaviour of birds and fish). The name, Neonascent, is also the title of an online emergent art gallery I’m in the process of creating, and comes from the conjoining of Neo ( New; recent), and nascent (Coming into existence; emerging).

It may look a little primordial and far removed from an exciting creature dancing around, but that is the point. The physical “body” of the creature is intended to resemble a pre-stage creature; foetus or larvae/maggot. The beauty of the creature come once it has transcended its immediate body and is interacting on another level. This is not to say, similar to many SciFi conceptions of “virtual reality”, that it is an altogether seperate world or existence. The two are invariable and essentially connected through, for example, Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy of embodied perception.

On the tech side, the creatures self-affirm through USB via a PIC chip and RS232-USB chip. I’ve been having alot of fun doing Assembler level implementation of serial communications functions. It’s very hardcore and geeky, but at the same time incredibly beautiful - like building a sculpture by gluing grains of sand together one at a time.

More picture of the prototype creature are on Flickr.