Emergence occurs when relatively simple instructions produce complex patterns and displays, without the direction of a central coordinator.
It can be found all over the animal world (for example in the flocking patterns of birds, or the construction patterns of ant colonies) and in human society (from the operation of economic markets to the bottom-up construction and organization of the internet).
Subtle Emergences was inspired by David Kadish’s interest in complex systems and the phenomenon of emergence that they exhibit. An immersive, interactive art installation, it comprosed of kinetic hanging “leaves”, sound-producing pipes, and misting patches that formed an ecosystem of inorganic beings. As visitors traversed the space, the environment changed, lights waning in some places and waxing in others, to reveal new perspectives of the space. As lights dim, the leaves slow and sounds rise from the pipes; as viewers explored the ecosystem, they became part of it.
Subtle Emergences allowed viewers to embed themselves into a complex, emergent system and explore the relationships between technology, environment, and ourselves.
You can view more of David’s works on his website here.
Subtle Emergences // Interpretive Essay by Jeannette Angel
Pause.
And you will experience a shift, a turn, curling, reaching, pulling
still... moving
The gallery space is transformed into an ecosystem of hanging fabric entities and copper sound outcroppings. They are fragile technological beings that are not animals, not plants and yet they invite us to care about them. One seems to breathe.
Why should we care? Clearly these beings do not need us. Our actions do not seem to trigger a direct response, although our presence can initiate events. There is nothing about the way things happen in the space that would suggest anything good or bad, predictable or leading to a particular end. We are immersed in a delicate space, participating in almost imperceptible change.
The work invites us to consider change as something that is surprising and delightful rather than only scary and cataclysmic.It encourages us to be open to changes in our environment. We can learn to see the effects of our actions in their subtle emergences rather than only witnessing their overt consequences. Perhaps we can experience change as an opportunity for interdependent curiosity and exploration rather than forced growth and development.
The materials of the hanging fabric entities are soft, pliable and playfully suggestive of organic forms. The copper sound outcroppings flow from the wall, the floor, the ceiling, and bring forth tones buried deep within their pipes. They may remind people of sculptural pieces from the fifties and sixties like the precariously balanced kinetic mobiles of Alexander Calder that move in response to the visitor.
However Subtle Emergences is related to its art antecedents, the objects spill into a contemporary network of associations through their interactive qualities. While acknowledging the relationship to the rhythmic fragility of Arthur Ganson’s whimsical machines, Kadish’s entities move, emit sounds and are illuminated through technological design. This impulse to use microcomputers to animate objects, embed wire coils in fabric and play with heat sensitive paint is undoubtedly supported by Kadish’s years as an engineering student, but also formative participation in interdisciplinary design projects.
The concept of interaction design, which investigates the dynamic relationship between humans and technology, has always been strongly featured in Kadish’s creative experiments. Subtle Emergences introduces a new design element from ecology, the concept of complexity: a cluster of strands that weave in and out of one another, splitting and recombining, braiding and curling. In the gallery space, designing complexity involves building a generative composition that is not necessarily cause and effect; your interaction with one hanging form may cause changes in another piece across the room. This allows interactions to be affected by the dynamic participation of people, technological components and environmental factors. Sounds in the room activate the movement of the hanging entities, bodies in space disrupt shadows on the wall and words are revealed through changes in temperature.
This environment is charged with meanings that require a slow engagement in order to come into being. Bringing together art and science satisfies our human need to make sense of our world poetically.
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