Particle system from Processing Paris workshop

In April 2011 I attended Processing Paris. I took part in the masterclass, led by Hartmut Bohnacker, one of the authors of Generative Design.

I learned a lot about simulating physics (or faking physics, which is ‘good enough’ in many cases). We experimented with particle systems, where a hole bunch of elements behave according to rules, such as ‘move around in circles’, or: ‘change direction randomly’. When the elements interact with each other -for example: ‘maintain a minimum distance between neighbours’ – this can lead to emergence: the sum of the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Here is a video of the results of the masterclass. The first animation is mine.

Processing Paris Workshops 2011 from Processing Paris on Vimeo.

And here are some more still images: