OVOID FLOCKING

Design Excellence Winner

BIO-(In)Formatic Modeling

Professors: Danelle Briscoe (School of Architecture) + Dr. Chandrajit Bajaj (Dept. of Computer Science)

Ovoid Flocking explores the spatial qualities of a system of flocking particles, which are based on the movement of birds and other flocking animals. This particle system exhibits emergent behavior — when patterns emerge in larger bodies as a result of interactions among smaller entities that themselves do not exhibit such properties. 

As the particles flock, they exert forces on each other (alignment, cohesion, and repulsion). There is an additional force that draws them to move along the surface of a geometry, in this case an ovoid with variable elliptical voids. As the geometry morphs over time, the particles trace its various stages. This creates a complex spatial configuration of superimposed spaces defined by fibers, each of which represent the path of a single particle.