The Bush Soul (#3) extends The Bush Soul (#2) by adding the element of time. Artificial life forage for food during the day, sleep at night, and engage in evening rituals. A "soul" is represented as a sphere of particles. As one explores and interacts with the environment, one's soul may inhabit the body of certain artificial life forms. A force-feedback joystick provides navigation and tactile sensations and serves as a connection between the physical body and virtual soul. Through the joystick one can feel the "energy" of the environment as vibrations emanating from different creatures and significant places in the virtual world. This work draws on the language of video games but presents an alternative artistic exploration of behavior and artificial life.
The Bush Soul (#3) is the second work (after The Bush Soul (#2)) to use the Emergence Engine, which was extended to support haptic feedback.
Created in collaboration with Rebecca Allen, Loren McQuade, John Ying, Pete Conolly, Josh Nimoy, Jino Ok, Damon Seeley, Daniel Shiplacoff, Karen Yoo, and Vanessa Zuloaga.