"Shadow Box Attractions" at CURRENTS 2012

David Stout premieres Variation 2 of  "Shadow Box Attractions" at CURRENTS 2012 opening June, 22, 2012 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The work explores the cinematic potentials of a virtual particle chamber. This software environment designed in collaboration with programmers Luke DuBois, Reiner Kramer and Cory Metcalf, facilitates the perturbation and observation of semi-autonomous particle interactions. This live simulation allows the artist to place positive or negatively charged nodes at various locations within the chamber to create complex force fields. These multiple interpenetrating fields interact to yield intricate states of attraction and repulsion. The resulting visual behaviors are rich and varied, from very slow accumulations of atmospheric clouds to swiftly multiplying branches or tree-like structures. In some scenarios the placement, positioning and scaling of the charged nodes give rise to self-perpetuating feedback phenomenon in the form of classic strange attractors. At other times isolated particles perform graceful arcs and swirls or vibrate in stuttering bursts between magnetic poles.