king talk

No matter what you code and design, natur can top this aesthetics in some special way, like this video about a swarm of starlings. The complexity of the system is just impressive. Starlings become dots in a this natural particle system and I end up questioning myself: »How can this work out?« Thousands of birds in flocks and they don‘t collide. Researchers found out that each bird always pays attention to the same number of neighbors, whether theyre closer or farther away.

Starlings can almost always see many more nearby birds — but the number of may be closely tied to birds cognitive ability. The direction of the flock can be coordinated by each birds tracking six or seven other birds. This is remarkable! A very different kind of cognitive skill that has its own complex aesthetic. The behaviour of this swarm could also be programmed in lines of code. Every dot has its own parameters in the whole system. Flight404 even did a project calles Birds which simulates this whole process in a virtual and even aesthetic way. This swarm is a perfect example how nature influences the digital world.

via Audubonmagazine