Sarah Yae LookingOutwards2 Section B

“Boil Up: Realtime Feeding Frenzy” (2013) is created by Robert Hodgin. His work can be explored on:

http://roberthodgin.com/portfolio/work/boil-up/

Hodgin’s animation installation of the sea and fish pattern amazed me. Although the audience receives a single experience,  there were so many procedural layers involved to create it. Hodgin had to break down his project into multiple steps, which added onto each other. For example, his first step would be the formation of bait by observing group behavior, then he would introduce the smaller predators.

The algorithm that generated the work was apparently “GPU-based” and his work was to be displayed via 4 projectors in a cylindrical room.

Hodgins’s artistic sensibilities manifested in his algorithm when he had to code the design of the fish as well as the sea, to make them look realistic.