Cycles - Blending Natural and Artificial Properties in a Generative Artwork

Cycles is an interactive installation that establishes an intimate relationship between the visitor's physical body and simulated organisms. It explores notions of transience and identity that draw inspiration from Buddhist philosophy. Cycles creates a situation that causes the visitor to experience his or her own body in a state of mutability and transience. Cycles merges the appearance of the visitor's hand with a visual representation of a swarm simulation. By bridging the gap between the virtual and physical, a hybrid entity comes into existence whose rapidly changing body blends artificial and natural properties. This hybrid entity progresses through a life cycle that reenacts the four Buddhist sufferings.