Converations on Chaos

Random magnetic oscillating pendulums, custom software and electronics.

2015-10-01

Chaos is a state of utter confusion or extreme disorder. In thermodynamics, entropy is used to determine the amount of chaos of a system; this is one of the ways employed to study how our universe expands. Starting from the “Big Bang” and during 14.3 billion years until the present moment, matter has spread and organized in space; creating an ordered, stable, and apparent symmetric universe. Our harmonious existence, our bodies, our knowledge (patterns of thought), everything we experience today in our organized, balanced and stable lives, emerged from this original disorder.  Conversations_on_chaos is a project which deepens on the idea of order as the emergence of chaos. It uses chaos theory and elements from dynamic system studies and experimentation in order to create a system where two machines hold a chaotic conversation about chaos. The installation is comprised of two Random Oscillating Electromagnetic Pendulums or ROEMPs (a modification of ROMPs - instruments used to study chaos theory and dynamic systems in scientific experimental setups) and a computer running a custom software which implements Markov's Chains algorithm in order to enable the machine with a human like language processing tool.  The installation works as an infinite loop with each cycle containing two main moments: the chaotic dynamics, when the pendulums operate and talk to each other via binary I/Os (please refer to Hardware Description for a more detailed explanation), and the data processing and text to speech engine operation, when the previously generated chaos becomes the voice for a human like conversation between the entities. After each cycle, the previously generated idea of chaos becomes the new starting point from which a new, and in a sense a more evolved concept about chaos, emerges. One way of thinking about this process is as thought generator which starts almost as a schizophrenic voice and evolves cycle by cycle into a rational artificial entity.