This sketch is based on using the sin function to control the motion of a series of objects- it's been used for lots of pieces and is a common technique, such as making a simulation of grass stalks waving in the wind. I wanted to create a piece which echoed my experiences with crabs on the sea shore as a child, a series of languid motions, with a small sinister element to them.

The inspiration for this piece is the kinetic energy of points of light being connected, and what might happen if you scattered a series of steel pins on a surface and started shaking magnets around on them. Nothing too complicated, but irrepressible energy.

This is a computational design which uses a simple transform and rotation to repeat wisps of smoke radiating from the centre. Lots of circular pieces work from the outside towards the centre, and this piece does the opposite, works from the centre towards the periphery. The maths and code are based around something written by @zenbullets, Matt Pearson, and I've only really adapted and tweaked his work.

My first forays into programming with Processing were made possible by two people: Daniel Shiffman and Ira Greenberg. Ira's book was an incredibly rich, funny and interesting book, and he describes some simple soft body physics which I've used as the central character who dodges or attacks 'bacterium" (small randomly generated clusters of circles that attack from the right). The user controls our soft body, attacking or defending, depending on how you feel inclined. The piece was written in several versions in a coffee shop in Peterborough: this version is minus sound and the score counter and any other user interaction, stripped back to moving, dodging and attacking.