Gevurah

WEBXR (VR) HUMAN SWARM INTERACTION SIMULATOR & CYBERNETICS POEM

playthrough video

long-form introduction to the concepts employed

Gevurah is a multiplayer vr robotics simulator and cybernetics poem. Players can log in and interact with complex swarms of virtual robots, while hunting for lore (texts) about the virtual world. Gevurah brings together various fields of emerging technology, as well as many poetic ideas about the future of humanity’s relationship to data, algorithms and robots, in a compelling, fast-paced vr game format.

multi agent systems art

In the field of computer science, there is a subfield called “multi-agent systems”; these are computer programs that simulate “superorganisms” composed of hundreds (or thousands) of “artificial creatures” (like in the video below). We often find superorganisms in nature; in an ant colony or bee colony, the intelligence of the entire system is far greater than any individual ant or bee, and the entire system can solve problems that its members can’t alone.

Within the computer science sub-field of multi-agent systems, there are two more unique sub-fields (a.) swarm based construction and (b.) human swarm interaction. You can think of it again with its natural analogue: (a.) honeybees building a hive or (b.) a human that has trained a flock of crows. In nature, vast complex constructions are built by superorganisms, and we, as humans, often interact with them.

swarm urbanism

(a.) Observe this video by Kenichi Kabeya above (particularly minute six on). In this example, a series of agents spread themselves throughout the city, forming a complex hive-like exo-architecture around the current buildings’ structures. These agents are able to smoothly adapt to local architectural (and geographic) conditions, producing an infinitely varied urban plan (each time this simulation is run), but with an overall stylistic similarity. This idea of “swarm urbanism” will be explored in great depth in Gevurah.

human swarm interaction

(b.) Swarms however don’t just operate entirely on their own logic; they can be put into dialogue with human behavior. Think of a person standing in front of a building with FPOV goggles and a drone in front of them. Think of that drone flying through the city (or building); that’s what’s happening in the example above.

If a pilot is assigned “a fleet of drones,” they can’t possibly control all of them, so the fleet has to have its own navigation logic (this is what’s shown in the video above); nonetheless, the pilot still needs to have influence.

Ultimately, for working with a flock of drones, there must be a partnership between the human being (“pilot”) and the superorganism (the “drone fleet”). This partnership, and its control mechanisms, will be explored at great length in Gevurah.

SWARM URBANISM IN VR

In the above video clip from Gevurah, architect robots (the long red columns) infinitely construct and destruct the landscape. One column builds lakes. One column builds mountain ranges. One column builds “apartment blocks.” Three of the columns “erase” the work of the other robots. There is no predetermined plan to this city. The robots infinitely build it, and tear it apart; it evolves forever.

human swarm interaction in VR

When a player logs into Gevurah, they are assigned a fleet of robots. These robots operate by their own swarming algorithm; however, the player can set “way-points” for the flock, influencing their movement. The player above is “throwing” the “anchor point” to a location; then, telling his robot to go to that location.

In the above video, the players “calls” their flock to them, “releases” the flock, then jumps into the POV (point of view) of different flock members, while controlling how close or how far away flock members are to each other.

GEVURAH’S THREE POEMS

Gevurah contains three poems.

(1.) In the first Gevurah video, above, before the player loads into VR, one can see a text being written in the bottom right hand corner. This text is about about “swarms” in daily life in Oakland California during 2020, e.g. swarms of crows, Covid-19, political gatherings, etc. It was written over the course of a year during the pandemic, as a kind of cybernetics diary.

(2.) In the second video, you can see text flashing on the architecture robots. Periodically, the architecture robots will pause, allowing the player to see the texts. These texts are about robot consciousness and were written out of experiences with interviewing some of the world’s most prominent multi-agent systems scientists.

(3.) The final text is buried throughout the landscape (the black box, in the video above). To see it, the player must hunt for the text with their robot swarm; when the swarm turns blue, it means they have sensed the text and they can direct the player to its location. These hidden texts are about the transformation of human consciousness through its engagement with algorithms, and the resulting construction of “a city of information.”

Together, these three texts form the “lore” (or literary backbone) of the Gevurah experience.

Cyber allegory

Ultimately, Gevurah is: (1.) an experience of hunting for lore (texts), (2.) using a complex cybernetic body (player + swarm), (3.) in an infinite machine-built city.

The lore itself addresses: (1.) swarms in “real life,” (2.) robot “consciousness,” and (3.) “a city of information.”

Together, this hybrid work of gamelike literature (or this literary game) speaks directly to our contemporary co-evolving relationship with algorithms and robots.