Am wrapping up my project today so this will be my last post.

I hope that this archive document informs and supports viewings of my project, educating viewers on my own creative process.

Thank you for reading.

Got an email this morning from Maggie Boden. She has agreed to meet with me, which will be an amazing resource. Unfortunately she can't see me until Tuesday, when I cannot add to this blog, as it must be submitted.

I hope it will still give me another insight into the themes I'm tackling, and inform my critique.

Last night I went to the Digiville event on collaboration. Cynthia Beth Rubin gave a talk on the successes and failures she's experienced in this method of working, and made me think about how the experience of 'collaborating' can vary so much from project to project.

I met Rachel Beth Egenhoefer who did the knitting input I wrote about earlier this week, and Anna Dumitriu was there too! She suggested I talk to Semiconductor about the computer as creative collaborator, as apparently it's something that they have an interest in. Have emailed them today and Ruth has said they'd be very happy to share their views - yay!

I've been making my animation today and it's been driving me mad! Have finally finished it but it sounds a bit tinny. Never mind - I'm not being marked on it as such, it has a documentation function.

Everything else is ready for submission so I can start thinking about other things now.

I'm getting a bit anxious about my critique. Really want to get it done by the practical hand-in date because I need to get on with my dissertation. Only 4 1/2 weeks to get everything done in!

Went to see Rachel Beth Egenhoefer's project on Saturday in the end. Unfortunately some of it was being taken down (it was the last day) but I managed to see one thing which was really cool.

Aluminium knitting needles acted as an input device, with stitches registered on the computer as a series of '0's and '1's (binary like my project). This data was then used to produce designs on cloth.

Essentially the final cloth pattern was the computer's interpretation of the stitches being fed into it. Is this a creative exercise?

Have picked up my project today!! There are so many sheets it's a bit daunting!

Have decided to go with the black and white progress shots, so am taking them up to Will on Monday morning to get them printed. They wouldn't email because there's so many!

Am off to look at Rachel Beth Egenhoefer's exhibition at the Lighthouse this afternoon. Should be good.

Went up to the print unit this morning.

Chatted to both Will and Vicky (the other person I emailed) and they are sorting my big image out! Is going to cost £32.34, but that includes half an hour of Will's time splitting the whole image down into A3 sheets.

It's a bit annoying that they can't do any bigger, but that's life and perhaps it's a blessing in disguise. Certainly A3 sheets will be easier to handle, even if they take a bit longer to put up.

Am picking it up tomorrow so am quite excited.

Now I just have to sort out the progress images which are going to be pasted on the right-hand wall. They are screenshots of the image as it went along. I want them A3 but can't decide between colour (£40ish) and black and white (£4)!!!

How cool are these?! Have been working on them all afternoon and am pretty pleased - those banisters are really tricky!

Have finished my image - hoorah!!

No word from Will Barker so I emailed another member of staff there. They're printing exam papers this afternoon so closed to visitors. I'm working tomorrow so will have to go up first thing Thursday with the image and just get them on the job straightaway.

The meeting with Ju was good but worrying too. I tried to explain my project to her and she didn't really get it. If a multimedia artist has problems then getting the public to engage with it will be tricky. That's something I really need to focus on in my 'Short Critical Introduction': making it simple, and communicating to the audience what I intend them to take from the project.

Having spoken to my mum on Saturday night, I think it's best to find another printer. Sounds like getting it done at her (old) work would put her in a difficult position and she really doesn't need that.

Have emailed Will Barker at the Print Unit of campus to ask for a quote so should hear back from him sometime later today.

Will be spending serious screen time today developing my final image, hoping to get it done by the end of the day, then we're off to see Ju just after 3:00.

I cannot believe my luck this week.

My mum has just been made redundant and so her firm may well not be able to print my project! Will find out more Monday/Tuesday, but it's really the last thing I need on top of the loading bay disaster!

Have been mapping code all afternoon. Am really pleased with the image so far, and feeling pretty positive about the project.

Hope to finish up on Monday morning, before we head over to see Ju Row Farr at Blast Theory HQ. She came in and gave a lecture earlier this term and we've been invited to go and see her to discuss her, and our, work. Should be good.

These are two images I've produced as part of my 'Exhibition Plan'. Made on a 3D home design package, I'm really pleased with how they look and plan to Photoshop in my work for submission.

Had a brief pay around with Illustrator to begin my final image. Trying to fit the swarm into the space is not going to be easy. I may have to overlay several swarms as I can't run the programme with more than about 500 boids (it goes a bit mad).

I want to put all the code from the hex editor (ie. the whole programme which runs the swarm) into the final image. I feel this is important conceptually, as I am trying to create a visualisation of the programme as a whole, not just a few elements of it.

Practically though I may have to use a rectangular canvas and just cut off what I can fit into the space. It's annoying, but the project was conceived for a square space and I am having to work with an area with very different dimensions.

I am not very well :( so I'm going home now to bed. It means I wont' be able to go to Rachel Beth Egenhoefer's talk. I'm gutted because it sounds so relevant. The exhibition is up until 5th April though, so I should be able to go along another day.

Have been having a play about with Illustrator, working out how to map the image using it as a 'template' for the text tool.

Having trouble visualising the project in its new space though so am going home to make some mock-ups.

I've spent the whole of this morning panicking about my project. I am so furious that Estates have done this without telling anyone.

Mary, who is in charge of the whole Arts complex only knew when the builders turned up this morning and Peter, the Head of MSU, wasn't told either. Both knew about, and had okayed, my project, so would have known to bring this up with Estates if they'd had any warning. I just can't believe the lack of communication.

Anyway, I have reverted back to my original location - the stairwell, and will be covering only the lower section, removing the practical and health and safety problems I had before. I have already asked Peter about it and he has okayed it from both a wall-covering and a H&S point of view.

I have just received the following email from Mary Harrison:

Amy,

i have just been informed by estates that a new shutter is being fitted in EDB loading bay where you were hoping to put your display.

They have started work on this today and will be finished by the end of next week.

It cuts down on the room available for you and you will probably need to change your plans.

Mary.

I cannot believe this.

After a few days off over Easter, I wrote the first draft of my 'Short Critical Introduction' today. Needed some inspiration for how to approach it, as it's not something I'm used to writing.

Had a look through the Brighton Festival brochure and went down to Brighton University's Grand Parade building, where they hold a lot of exhibitions, to pick up some more resources.

While I was there I saw this flyer for an exhibition by Rachel Beth Egenhoefer. She 'creates tactile representations of intangiable data codes' - hugely relevant to my work. She's speaking at an event on Thursday so I'm going to go along.

There's also another event at the same place in a fortnight on 'The Collaboration Experience: Working across Disciplines, Borders and Attitudes' - how relevant is that?!

I met up with Anil Seth this afternoon. He was really interesting to talk to and had some strong views about the intelligence of computers and their consciousness, which will be excellent for my critique.

He also advised me to contact Maggie Boden to discuss creativity and computing, so I've sent her an email to try and arrange a meeting. As the the founding-Dean of the School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences she should be an amazing person to talk to.

I have had a major breakthrough!!!

This amazing code is by Mike Blow, who is super lovely and incredibly helpful. The code is amazingly clear and really easy to manipulate. It runs in two versions - 'Angels' and 'Dots'. I'll be using the 'Dots' version for my work.

From the top here you can see my exploration of the code, playing with swarm size, velocity, canvas size and the size of the 'boids' (the dots). I can now start working on my final image - hoorah!!

Mark Bishop sent me through some code today, by a graduate student he is supervising, Mohammad Majid. The swam it creates is amazing (see bottom pic from Mohammad's website (only runs in Internet Explorer) but it's all Java (see top pic) and I don't know how to run it!

Have emailed him to ask for a bit of a guide and will have to experiment on the back of that.

Jamie Matthews from Informatics has sent me some great swarm code which I'm playing with today. It goes a bit mad when you add more 'boids' (little buggy things) like Jamie warned it would, so I'm going to have to work out how to sort that

I've also just learnt how to add libraries to Processing!

Neil Mather sent me some code 'written in C++ using the Qt application framework'. Not sure how I work that but it is sooooo pretty!

Got sent an email which mentioned 'Senster'. Looked it up and it's a drawing robot! The website has an excellent overview of robots in art.

Have gone through the emails I got sent yesterday with offers of code, and am just waiting for the actual code to be sent through. I've kept my options open, taking up all the offers, and will now see what filters through, and how relevant it is to the visual I want to create.

Have also arranged to meet Dr Anil Seth on Thursday. He has been working in swarms, flocks and emergent behaviour for the last few months so should be able to give me a pure AI slant on the work I am looking at.

I have had so many responses to my request for code! I love the Informatics people!

Going to go through it all tomorrow and see what is suitable - hooray!

Today I met up with Anna Dumitriu, Director of the Institute of Unnecessary Research and Artist in Residence at Sussex University's Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics. She was really inspiring and gave me some interesting comments on the boundaries between art and science.

She has offered to act as a contact between myself and the team at Informatics, to see if any of them have a swarm system I can map over. I would really like to have a system from within the university to build a link between the science and art sides of the campus, as well as merging the two in my work.

This afternoon I have also been to a talk given by Lizbeth Goodman, Director of the SMARTlab Digital Media Institute. She spoke on the technologies the lab has developed for minority groups, including the severely disabled, to access digital media. Though not wholly relevant to my project it was interesting to hear about the scope of digital technologies, especially in relation to inputs such as eye-tracking.

I've spent most of today's session looking for a swarm system to map my code onto. No luck thus far - will have to talk to Anna about it tomorrow.

Find these sessions really interesting though because we all talk about our ideas and help each other out. There's a good atmosphere of collaboration. Aaah - how sweet!

Saw this in the paper this morning.

Good example of sci-art bringing something that is difficult for the public to understand into a visual format.

Specifically liked that the project is recursive like mine, using the code of something to produce a visual representation of it: 'An internet security firm worked out the programming code for some widespread viruses which a specialist computer artist then turned into 3D shapes'.

More pictures here.

I am ill so haven't gone to class :(

Today I've photographed the loading bay.

The main wall space (two solid side walls and false wall over the shutter) will be approx 9m x 3.5m. Haven't measured the height accurately yet though - need a ladder!

I've been thinking about where to place my progressive shots within the space. I like the idea of having them over the archway of the entrance. In that way I make the best use of the wall space for the large image, making it totally immersive, and catch people as they turn to leave with something new.

I've made some sketches of potential use of the space and emailed them through to Nev, my printer, to give him some idea of the challenge he is up against! They've not come out very clearly here but hopefully they will give him come idea where I am coming from and help him work out the technical stuff!

Went for a walk on the beach yesterday evening and watched the starlings darting about.

It was good to get a bit of a natural perspective of my project. I'm getting so deeply into computer-swarming that I tend to forget where it came from.

They really were beautiful and inspiring. Reminded me how annoyingly-good Robert Hodgin is - his Birds is spot-on. perhaps I can evolve this project somehow using the published videos? I definately like the visual style of flocks - will focus on this I think.

Photos aren't mine by the way - they are from the Regency Square Area Society.

I went to this talk last night, with a view to thinking about and discussing robot's capacities to imagine, as this is a simillar intagiable concept to love.

We watched scenes from 'Bladerunner' and 'A.I.' in small groups and discussed them in small groups. We discussed the concept of conciousness a lot, which was relevant to my project, but mainly the evening was focused on ethics rather than creativity.

Today I've been looking for a swarm system to build my project on.

I found this Java system by Christian Borgelt which is quite interesting, but not random enough for me. The swarm seems to situate around a central oval. I want something more random; more natural.

It was interesting to think about the interactivity inherent in a swarm system: each of the particles is programmed to interact with the others.

I've been to see Mary today about my code problems.

She says that it's unlikely I could hack a particle system to get different letters to swarm. They are built to circulate one particle, not different ones. It seems that I either forget the idea completely or look at other ways of creating the same end visual.

Mary has suggested that I use Photoshop to map the letters over a still of a particle or swarm system. This is a really good idea and something I feel really comfortable doing. I have to use the knowledge I do have to solve the problem, rather than panicking about the knowledge I don't have; I just have to approach the problem differently!

Now I need to find a swarm system!

HOORAY - Mary Harrison has agreed that I can use the MSU loading bay for my project! Now I can finally start making!!

Am having a bit of a worry about my project. I emailed some code through to Mary that I've been working on over the last week or so. It's the most relevant visually to ideas of swarm and hive mentality, but I just can't get it to run (see pic!).

I've updated all the code so that it is compatible with the newest version of Processing (which we have). Adam mentioned that it could need custom libraries and if it does, I'm stuck, because no-one publishes these - only the code!

I really need to confirm a location for the project too. I've been chasing Paul round for weeks trying to talk to him about it, but he's got so much teaching on I can never find him!

Generally feeling pretty anxious about the progress of the project.

Made this quick mock-up of my project. Just trying to show the swarming of code - it won't be in these straight lines in the final project.

For the last few days I've been playing with code from Robert Hodgin's site Flight404.com, especially the stuff focusing on particles.

Managed to find a kind of hidden section to the site, with a list of sketches and their code. I can't get the majority to work in my version of Processing. I think I'm missing some custom libraries and unless someone gives me that I'm stuffed.

Got a couple of things to work though:

The top sketch takes an image and cuts it up into a selection of little squares, blanking some out with white. Each time you click on it it changes. Reminds me of the stuff the Adam is doing with photos.

The others are particle systems, which I'm thinking about trying to map onto an image somehow. Jared Tarbell maps particles onto grids so I guess it would possible theoretical to map them onto a photo using the colours, for example.

Have just had an email from a friend of mine who is doing Music Informatics.

Was talking to him about my project the other day and it turns out that he's just been doing a course dealing with a lot of the questions my project has been inspired by.

He has sent me through a load of readings which should be really helpful for my critique, as well as informing my project at this stage.

Mary has also found me some good readings, one of which takes Walter Benjamin's work into the digital domain. As I mentioned him in my essay last term this is an excellent lead on from that.

Have just had my lunch and found a flyer for Brighton Science Week. Has some cool and relevant things on for my project on, like 'Can Robots Love?' and a 'Catalyst Club' talk on the relationship between Science and Art.

Today I've been looking into hex editors. They allow you to view and edit the binary data that makes up a file, rather then the interpretation of that file by an application. In a sense, then, they allow you to see the purest, most basic form of a programme - the raw data.

As this is what my project is trying to visualise, within the 'imagination' of the the computer, it makes sense to use this data. I am trying to show how the computer could 'think' or 'create' and I like the idea that the project could be recursive - an image of itself; an image of code built using code.

The project aims to deconstruct the code, to interpret it in a different way, or to re-imagine it.

Like the interactivity offered here, and the fact that it makes technology accessible. It's bringing sci-art into the built environment.

Mary isn't keen on my ideas around neural networks, as it's overdone, so I'm moving on to looking at swarm systems and hive mentality.

I'm looking into data visualisation through Information Aesthetics, which is really inspiring, but I don't have any data to visualise! I need to look into ways of getting some data.

I need to think about colour, shapes and forms. I'm still keen on the visuals of circuit boards so am trying to think of ways of incorporating elements from them.

Both Paul and Mary have talked with me about spreading my project around MSU, leaving 'traces' of the experience in different places. I have to think about how I could make this work.

Hooray! I have a new space for my work!

Came in firsy thing this morning and spoke to one of the photographers, Penny, about a space she was due to use - the MSU loading bay.

Turns out she isn't using it anymore so I'm free to go ahead!

Have just had some bad news.

Rob, my partner, has talked to the tool hire guy at his work and he reckons that doing the stairwell will be practically impossible, and certainly dangerous, without professionally-fitted scaffolding. This, obviously, is way out of my price range, not to mention really inconvenient.

Feel a bit crushed. It's the weekend so I'm going to have a think about what I can do, and start sourcing alternatives on Monday morning :(

At least I can stop bugging everyone about risk assessments for a couple of days though!

I've made some mock-ups of the project in situ to help Mary and Andrew visualize what I'm looking to do. The images aren't my own, but I wanted to give them a feel of the immersion I'm trying to create.