ITS-Manning, the Renaissance Computing Institute, Teleimmersion Room
(third floor)
Tuesday, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.
Wednesday, 5:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Thursday, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.
Friday, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.
Free and open to the public


Principal Investigator
Casey Alt, visiting assistant professor of the Practice of Visual Arts, Duke University

Project Description
Things Fall Apart is a series of eight generative software works that illustrates the enchanting fragility of social systems. Created using the Processing programming language, the pieces visualize the changing relationships among different social network simulations, each with unique initial conditions and social rules.

The resultant imagery represents a visual history of these dynamic behaviors, with colors, forms and motions varying as the relationships unfold across each system. The specific visual properties of each piece draw upon traditional painterly styles to evocatively reinforce the type of social system being simulated.

Since the works emerge dynamically each time they are run yet still conform to the same social rules, every iteration of every work is different yet stylistically similar. Each work concludes once all of its objects exceed a predefined lifespan or its network system collapses.