Endo/exo: Making art and music with distributed computing

Abstract

What do new possibilities for music and art making look like in a world in which the biological and mechanical are increasingly entangled? It is with this question in mind that the interactive mechanical sound art installation endo/exo came into being. Through the use of networked technology, the system becomes more like a self-aware organism, passing messages from node to node as cells communicate through “chemical signals” with their neighbors. In an artistic context, the communication network resembles, but differs from, other mechanical systems. Issues such as latency are often considered negative factors, yet when leveraged purposefully, they can contribute a touch of personality in this context. This paper is a reflection on these and other considerations gained from the experience of designing and constructing endo/exo. Additionally, it considers future implications for the Honeycomb platform as a tool for creating musical interactions within a new paradigm that allows for emergent behavior across vast physical spaces. The use of swarming and self-organization, as well as playful interaction, creates an aliveness in the mechanism, and renders its exploration pleasurable, intriguing and uncanny.