Interactions
In this body of work, I continue investigating the nature of self-organized, complex systems–those systems maintained far from thermodynamic equilibrium by an influx of energy flowing through the interactions of the constituent components. While working with creatures for an earlier body of work (Animalia, 1994-97), I noticed the animals interacting in ways that could not be seen in just one frame of action. Their group behavior seemed to embody certain general features of complex dynamical systems. Interactions is a record of some of the patterns in space and time produced by this behavior. Each artwork is composed of 15-20 life-size inkjet prints made from successive scans of selected animals as they associated on the platen of a flatbed scanner.
The feeding silkworm caterpillars in Transformation of Matter and Energy highlight the major method of energy flow through the complex system we call the biosphere. Light energy from the sun is trapped by chlorophyll for photosynthesis, that amazing process by which green things create bodies from water and air. Whosoever eats these green bodies continues the movement of that captured energy. Here, the molecules of the mulberry leaves become the molecules of the silkworms, and the energy from disrupted molecular bonds is used for caterpillar growth. The throughflow of energy accomplished by eating each other permits life to sustain organized patterns of cells, organisms, populations, communities and ecosystems.
In The Importance of Connectivity, three densities of nightcrawlers are observed as they seek to “coagulate” into densely-packed spheres. The higher the initial density, the greater the number of other worms with which any one individual is connected. When the initial worm density is high, virtually all the individuals are already in contact, so they simply squeeze themselves into one smaller and smaller “wormball.” When the initial density is low, the worms seem unable to find each other, and spend an equivalent length of time thrashing around, unable to form a ball. But when the initial density of worms is intermediate, an interesting and unpredictable thing happens: the worms divide into two separate groups and form two wormballs! When networks of a certain size are “sparsely connected,” they can demonstrate remarkable order without becoming either static or chaotic. It is just this sort of network that may have been primary in the emergence of life from the chemical soup.
For Emergence of Pattern, one deathhead roach was added to the group at each scan until there were 20 roaches confined on the glass. When just a few insects are present, no pattern is visible. But when roach number five is added, the insects are suddenly seen to be following a behavioral rule that specifies how to link up with each other. They first form a loose line, hugging the walls of their “playpen,” then spread out in a single plane. By looking only at individual roaches, there is no way to predict the distribution pattern that arises from roach-to-roach communication. The structure of the population emerges from the interactions of its constituents. Emergence of novel structures because components follow simple rules of interaction is a defining feature of complex dynamical systems.
Complex systems are often said to inhabit the realm between order, where there are no surprises, and chaos, where there are always surprises. In this dynamic state, there is just enough order to maintain repeatable processes, such as cellular metabolism, or sex and reproduction, and just enough unpredictability to allow for evolution of the system. In Poised Between Order and Chaos, two gopher snakes become a metaphor for such systems as they uncoil and begin to re-coil, exploring the space of the platen.
Although the animals imaged here were alive and mobile, they appear—like the principles of organization they unwittingly suggest—abstract, devoid of context. But the real complex systems of communities and ecosystems that they—and we—actually inhabit are rich webs of intricate interrelationships, of feedback loops that sustain life on earth.
Carol Selter
September, 2002
For information on complex dynamical systems, see The Complexity Digest at www.comdig.org, the Santa Fe Institute website at www.santafe.edu, or www.visual-chaos.org/complexity.