The Angels, by Ruairi Glynn and Paul Burres from Bartlett School of Architecture in London, are autonomous vehices searching for interactions. They are constantly looking, listening and attempting to interpret our conversations, gestures and spatial relationships. The project investigates ways of constructing intelligent agents that can work as independent spatial features or combine to assemble virtually infinite constructs. The project looks at the possibilities of an architecture lighter than air capable of sheltering us and even bringing communities together.
The first prototype has been given a simple set of behaviors reacting to human gesture, proximity and conversation and it can only act individually. However, future iterations will investigate learning algorithms so that the Angels can adapt to their environment and work in flocks.
Glynn and Burres research explores how simple behaviors actuated by the Angels affect the experience of conversation space. Using the Angels onboard Vision System transmitted wirelessly to a local computer they processed real-time data of conversation space using a piece of software that generated formal representations of the interactions that occurred. These projections also provided an added form of feedback when screened into the conversation space.
Related: Tomas Saraceno’s floating Utopia, Responsive architecture, The MuscleBody, Reciprocal Space.