The Emergence Project

Artists Daniel Sauter and Mark Hereld worked together to create a digital artwork based on the ideas produced from the 2008 Chicago Humanities Festival. This innovative, real-time art installation explores how complex systems and patterns arise out of simple interactions.

The Emergence Project is a contemporary art installation that utilizes computer-generated animation to chart how complex patterns arise out of a multiplicity of interactions, a phenomenon known as “emergence”. The Emergence Project is a contemporary art installation that utilizes computer-generated animation to chart how complex patterns arise out of a multiplicity of interactions, a phenomenon known as “emergence”. The exhibition focused on the actual discourse emanating from several Hyde Park area venues during the Chicago Humanities Festival’s day of programs on October 11, 2008. The contents of the presentations, performances, and panel discussions are captured, analyzed, and processed into a multidimensional image that evolves from minute to minute. The piece uses programmable software to identify specific words, phrases, or parts of sentences representing “big ideas,” and project them in real-time on the Hyde Park Art Center’s digital facade as erratically morphing designs.

  • October 11, 2008 – January 2, 2009
  • Jackman Goldwasser Catwalk Gallery

About Mark Hereld

Mark Hereld is an astrophysicist/computer scientist at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory and a multimedia artist. He has worked on other digital projects on the Art Center’s facade such as Random Sky (2006) with Inigo Manglano Ovalle and Rick Gribenas and was the lead consultant on determining the software and technology for the Jackman Goldwasser Catwalk Gallery.

About Daniel Sauter

Daniel Sauter is an artist who creates interactive installations and site-specific interventions dealing with the cultural and social implications of emergent technologies. His current projects focus on mobile interventions exploring the phenomenon of projection in urban spaces. Currently Sauter is an Assistant Professor at the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC).

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