Hyperion (be careful of the links on this site, one leads to a completely different project with the same name at the same domain) by Briana Hegarty, Oisin Prendiville, John Ryan and Deirdre Williams is a generative work consisting of three different ecosystems. It is:

a triptych of mutually supporting digital environments that also rely on, and react to, sensor-based information received from the real-world environment…Modelled as individual links in a food chain using a real-world biological marine ecosystem as a behavioural blueprint, the environments of Eos, Selene and Helios form a circuit reflecting the interdependency of such biological systems. Created with Macromedia Flash and utilising sensor and networking technology, each environment relies on the others for sustenance, in addition to reacting to stimuli received from the installation’s real-world physical enviroment.

The first screen, Eos, displays single cell plantlife, diatoms. The second screen, Selene, displays krill, herbivores that feed on diatoms. The third screen, Helios, displays squid, who hunt krill.

The three screens form a digital circuit: diatoms from Eos move into Selene where they are food for krill, these krill pass into Helios to be hunted by squid, when the squid dies it is passed back to Eos as nitrates in the water for the diatoms.

This digital circuit is however, also dependant on the physical environment it is displayed in: in Eos the diatoms photosynthesise depending on light (measured by a light sensor) and carbon dioxide (sounds levels are representative of this) in the real-world environment. We also use proximity sensors in Selene, and Helios and the creatures in these screens get startled if viewers come too close to the screens.

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