Philip Beesley is a Canadian architect who is passionate about embedding interactivity into spaces, but not in the sterile sense of smart homes. Instead he has spent the last decade creating jungle-like environments where shape-memory alloys make plastic fronds recoil when touched, crystalline nests glitter at the command of microprocessors when viewers approach, and beakers of chemicals hang like exotic fruits and spritz ginger and musk into the air in an attempt to guide gallery-goers by sense of smell.
Beesley has created dozens of these robotic rainforests, each one filled with dozens of Arduino-powered droids designed to interact with each other—approximating the dense web of communications found in natural systems. “We configure the objects in a way that they attract and repulse each other,” he says. “These things aren’t simply neutral; they have an embedded hunger and wish to connect with each other, or to invade each other, or to protect each other.”
via Wired
Photo: Philip Beesley
