@article{Expression:120,
      recid = {120},
      author = {Sauter, Daniel},
      title = {The Emergence Project: A Machine of Expression},
      journal = {Journal of the Chicago Colloquium on Digital Humanities  and Computer Science},
      address = {2009},
      abstract = {The Emergence Project is a software art installation  exhibited at Hyde Park Art Center's digital facade gallery  from October 11 until December 31, 2008. The piece  investigates how complex patterns arise out of a series of  simple interactions, without apparent direction or plan.  Rising from the actual as-it's-happening discourse  emanating out of the Chicago Humanities Festival, the  presentations, performances, and panel discussions are  captured, analyzed, and processed into visualizations that  dynamically evolve from minute to minute. The generative  artwork uses simple morphological rules to animate word  clusters, based on linguistic proximity, similarity, and  difference.

In the work, hundreds of organic digital  creatures embody contributions from panelists and the  audience, captured by natural language processing software  and the World Wide Web. The digital creatures, or idea  clusters, continuously interact with each other, evaluating  qualitative proximity in regards to their meaning and  frequency. Thousands of local interactions between the  creatures, as well as autonomous creation of new creatures,  eventually generate patterns, that represent "big ideas"  emerging from the discussions throughout the festival. The  piece continues to evolve over time, reflecting the  evolution process in form of graphical patterns, statistics  and maps.

Emergence has become one of the liveliest areas  of research in philosophy and science. Examples of apparent  emergent phenomena range from colonies of ants to the  popularity of a particular hairstyle, and life itself. The  Emergence Project interrogates the very concept of  Emergence by reflexively adopting emergent behavior  simulations to contemporary discourse on Emergence.},
      url = {http://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/120},
}