About the Process

For the animations we developed a custom software tool that basically serves as a laboratory environment for the communication between individuals.

The individuals are represented by agents who have a certain autonomy to exchange messages with their peers.

We look at them like at small bacteria in our petri dish, and have lots of parameters to control the amount of agents, their movements and communication behaviour.

To be able to send messages, an agent needs to receive a kind of “stimulation currency” from others.
In the film, the agents stay invisible – only their messages are colourfully visualised.

In this image, each white circle represents an agent, and the size indicates its capability to send messages.

A sends a message to B, then B can send a message to either A or C – it’s a set of very simple rules which determine the behaviour of the agents – and it seems like a very dry simulation of human communication.

But when you let it run and play with the parameters, it won´t take long until you see message chains, clusters and patterns emerge from the messages. All of a sudden, there is a dance-like elegance, a life of its own in the messaging and movement of the invisible agents.

The movie switches between a macro and a micro perspective on our networks. The macro shows an overview and helps to understand the way our communication might work.

The micro reveals the inside perspective, and a lot more than what can be seen from the outside: a load of fantastic, elegant, twisted and turned and beautiful connections – taking shape, dissolving, not seizable, inexplainable, transforming in every second and different from every point of view.