In the Hardware Article by Mitchell Whitelaw, I liked the multiple examples of autonomous systems given and the information associated with it. Things like Yves Amu Klein's Octofungi are truly fascinating to me, but The line between science and art is beginning to blur for me. Things like this seem more like a science fair project than an artistic endeavor. It's interesting to think about the reproduction/portrayal of life into the mechanical art world. Communities are also fascinating to see created, like Kenneth Rinaldo's Autopoesis. The concept of machines communicating with each other kinda makes me uncomfortable. For example, On twitter there are many different "Bots" which respond to specific tweets with specified responses. These bots may be online-date-bots or advertising bots or whatever. There is a specific group out there followed by only these bots and they respond to each other and have their own conversations. 

In the Abstract Machines article, I liked the Idea of malleable life, however the examples of the concept given confused me. When brought down to the cellular level, It is hard to wrap my head around. The way it is described, It reminds me a little bit of a game called Spore, which starts at the microorganism stage and then as it went on, the creature you control can be fully customized and changed to fit specific needs. The character evolves due to input from the user

Ferrofluid music - Plugs into ipod and a sensor will pick out a certain note/s in different songs. An electromagnet is placed within a container with ferrofluid. The electromagnet will react with the music; getting stronger and weaker depending on the pitch and frequency. The ferrofluid will react differently depending on the strength of the magnet. This kind of audio physical visualization is called Cymatics. 

Class
Complexity: 

• Multifaceted
• Difficult to discern
• Has a core objective
• 2 or more components
• All about the interactions

Examples:
Bird clouds with organic shapes and grace
Man-of-War Jellyfish
Boyd Flocking Algorithm 

Vocab From Readings
Emergence
A process where by larger entities, patterns and regularities arise through interactions of smaller entities that don't show such properties.  ex.. Snowflakes.   Fractal Patterns. 
Self Organization
Order arises out of interactions between components of an initially disordered system

Comprehension
The Art systems created by Tom Davis are a little confusing to me. I have an understanding of His storm, however Excuse Me! I feel isn't defined enough for me to understand. I am unsure how it is set up in order to achieve its results.
I suppose I'm still a little hazy on what makes a system complex. It also could be that Davis' article seemed a little dry information wise. Despite this though, It was fascinating to read his take on complexity.

"So, the works of these two painters can stand for two different ontologies. One entails a dualism
of the human and the nonhuman, a detachment from and domination of the latter by the former,
and an erasure of time; the other entails an immediate symmetrical engagement between the
human and the nonhuman and an intrinsically temporal becoming in that engagement"
(New Ontologies, Andrew Pickering).  
Ontology: The study of Nature and Being.

Brainstorming
Algae                                                                               
Bio-luminescent Bacteria           
Luminous mold 

Idea
I am fascinated with Bio-luminescent Bacteria and I'm curious if it can be manipulated and influenced into lighting up on certain scenarios. Deep sea fish have organs called photophores which contain bacteria that react to a chemical within the organ. Other methods of organic luminescence can be found in insects and parasitised nematodes. Another thing I am looking into is black light luminescent mold. Depending on the situation, the mold should be manipulable into forming patterns.

The main Idea is to create a shallow container container composed of plexiglass with a fogged bottom. The next step would be to place Mold samples at one end and then dampen the rest of the container. Over the next days of growth on the surface, below the box will sit a device designed to sweep a black light tube back and forth not unlike a scanner. This will cause the growing mold to light up under the black light and reveal the growth patterns.

Phase 2 would be to suspend a live feed camera looking down at the container. MAX would be used to create a grid of points across the video file and whenever the black light would illuminate mold in green or yellow, the points on the spots would send an audio signal in order to create a sort of music that would evolve over time. if it works correctly, the notes will progress in time with the moving black light. 

Materials
Plexiglass
fogged plexi
hot glue
Mold samples
Mold "food"
ball bearing rail system
tube black light
Power source (Battery or other)
motor
computer
spray bottle
Live feed cam & vid cable