An Argument for Living in the Suburbs

 2022
Simeon Nelson and Daniel Polani
Dimensions 2000 x 700 x 300 mm 
Materials; led screen, plywood, palm fronds, wire, flint 

This video sculpture is part of a larger project titled Mesh Anarchism that investigates how possible societies, other than the one we have, might arise.  
 
Its resemblance to a kitchen cupboard or trophy cabinet suggests a glimpse into the privacy of a suburban home.  Inside it swarms of black pixels jitter and swarm across an embedded video screen bounded by mirrors reflecting this activity over a boundless plane. Each of these little pixels is an agent acting to maximize its own flexibility with respect to the density conditions that other agents around it provide - close enough to interact, but far enough to keep its own possibilities.

On the edge of the clusters that emerge from the swarm, in the Goldilocks zone of the suburban fringe, they can find the sweet spot between collective security and individual autonomy.