Abstract World, Ideal Spaces Working Group, Mauro Ferrario
artificial natures

Abstract World

Mauro Ferrario 

The abstract world is a representation of the internet world, the world of information, of data and emotions. Our abstract world is formed of millions of particles that move in the space. Each particle represents a piece of information that moves through the internet. The large amount of data could seem confusing and irregular, but every piece of data moves with a specific path and with a specific target (like the data that moves on the web). All these particles move and create a basic geometric structure and the shape of this structure is generated by a script. That script generates a new shape every time the abstract world catches an “#IdealSpaces” hashtag on Twitter. This means that the entire flow and movement of the particles is handle by the basic shape of the world. When the shape changes, new particles create the new structure and the particles already present in the world slowly move to a new position.

The shapes are randomly created by the script but the logic behind it is based on a regular polygon structure.

The colour of the particles is influenced by data too. The abstract world’s script analyses in real time the global Twitter flow and when it receives a tweet that includes some specific words, the script assigns an emotion and subsequently a colour to the particles.

So, the basic particles/information are neutral but the people’s reactions change particles into different colours.

The entire logic of the abstract world aims to create a world that is totally generated and managed by data and code. Without internet connection or “#IdealSpaces” hashtag, the abstract world would be a static and dead world. Without people’s emotions and reactions the abstract world would be without colours and emotions.

As with the real world, millions of particles move in a peaceful way but it can be hard to see the reasoning. But by looking at them from another point of view, we can see that all that particles create something that is harmonic and geometric.