Tulsa Test Patterns @tulsatestpatterns - Tumblr Blog

Final Assembly

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from working project drawings - january 9, 2015

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What happens when there is no leader? We look at the bottom-up logic of cities, Google, and even our brains.

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I am posting this video as a "sense of" reference.

Notes: Tulsa Patterns

The magic part of what we are seeing with fireflies in the wild is a vivid sense of purpose that is outside of our experience – we are seeing into another system. This instigates our sense of wonder. Since I am operating inside of our realm of experience, what I can do is look for an edge within our perception – a place we are not usually familiar with – with this project it is a set of devices that seem to want to measure the spaces and surfaces for us. They help us measure ourselves, our movements and our thoughts.

Bob Sober sent some video information on fireflies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNWAOB1VD98

It is worth watching to get a sense of their patterns and types.

I have spent some time watching videos of fireflies and I spent a lot of time this past summer watching them in the fields of the Flint Hills. I have felt as though I am watching an alien communication, a form that we can understand and experience in our terms, but not in the insect's terms.

My intent with the Tulsa Patterns is not to replicate the fireflies, but to find an equivalent system within our terms that can instigate a similar set of subtle surprises. There is a pace, an intensity, and a density that can do this, and my search has been to find this balancing act.

We know inherently that these are human patterns, and we look for purpose. What is this signal? Or is it some sort of gauge? Is something being measured?

We can witness that this system operates within a "circadian" rhythm. If we are careful, we can witness a daily "lifespan." These patterns are a strong enough reference to the firefly that metaphors spawn almost automatically.

I am now looking for the proper distance to allow these devices to operate as themselves, and not as representations. I am looking for ways that their operations drift into contact with the urban condition, as part of a set that contains street lights, traffic lights, automobile lights, etc.