This is the second of three posts on works (the first post is Screen Threshold) which are related with regards to how they transmit / emit information to connected devices to form a uni-directional network. While most of these works are almost ten years old what is fascinating about them is their use (and their solution by means) of standard everyday equipment in unique configurations i.e. the use of a computer monitor / screen as an output device (light received by light diodes) which actuates change in devices rather than users.

Moody Mushroom Floor (images above) is a networked:

smell/sound/light floor that develops moods and aspirations in response to the ways that people react to the invidual outputs.

Created by Hague, Design and Research (Usman Haque) who has collaborated with Aether Architecture on various works such as the WiFi Camera.

The Moody Mushroom Floor is a system of 8 input-output devices which, through their programming and sensors, create an internal representation of their surrounding environment and which act upon the environment with the outputs they are provided with. Their actions are determined by their goals — the important thing, however, is that each mushroom sets its own particular goals at any particular moment. These goals are given names of moods like “spoilt brat” or “alluring” or “capricious” and define what the mushroom hopes to achieve.

Each device…outputs a sequence of light, smell and sound which will tend either to attract human beings or repel them (or neither). The devices fall somewhere between unintelligent ‘nodes’ and more sophisticated ‘agents’.

The ‘agents’ emit output sequences which depend on the particular mode they happen to be in. They then check to see how successful that particular output sequence was (i.e. whether it attracted or repelled as intended) and a new output “strategy” is emitted, having undergone quasi-genetic operation to try and improve the output strategy for that particular mode, for that particular ‘agent’. The output strategies are successively evolved genetically and will tend to converge on six individualised sequences for each ‘agent’ in its various modes.

In the image above (bottom right) you can see light diodes (receiving diodes not LEDS) attached to a computer monitor.

Work originally seen in Responsive Environments Architecture, Art and Design.