XEPA
size variable (2013) - Industrial LED lighting, microcontrollers, custom circuit boards, power supplies, acrylic plastic, audio speakers, software
XEPA is the name of both this art project and the individual intelligent sculptures that display animated colored light and produce music and sound. XEPA is a recursive acronym for “XEPA Emerging Performance Artist.” Each XEPA watches the others (via data radio) and modifies its own aesthetic behavior to create a collaborative improvisational performance.
No coordination information or commands are sent via data radio. Each XEPA only sends a description of what it is doing at the time. Each XEPA independently evaluates the aesthetics of the other sculptures, infers a theme or mood being attempted, and then modifies its own aesthetics to better reinforce that theme. Each performance is unique, and a wide variety of themes and moods can be explored.