The guy behind sodaplay is giving a lecture at the The Institute for Figuring's get-together this Friday.
The architect of this online world is Ed Burton, an artist and computer programmer. Burton designed his soda-software as a virtual toy based around the principles of the engineering discipline known as Control and Dynamic Systems. Each model is made up from a set of points and lines: some of the lines are simple springs and act as a kind of soft skeleton; others act like muscles and can change length. In effect, the structures may be seen as virtual tensegrities. By connecting points in various arrangements of lines, structures can be given an internal logic that causes them to move. From these simple beginnings sodaplay users have evolved ever more complex mechanisms that can now mimic such sophisticated tasks as bipedal walking and multi-wheeled rolling. In this talk Burton will discuss the evolution of the sodaplay universe and the processes by which the community of soda constructors collectively develop new styles of form and function within this software world.
I'd definitely be there if I wasn't already going to San Diego's Street Scene.
Posted by jjwiseman at July 27, 2005 05:24 PM