In my previous articles, my exploration of flocking has remained in the realm of a diagram.  This iteration is the first step in taking those conceptual thoughts and brining them to a more architectural level.   My previous diagrams generated a logic.  The logic consisted of a series of points that responded to one another and a series of vectors attached to those points.  The next step I took was in aggregating those collections of points.

The aggregations involved connecting the spheres of flocking’s origin points.  After the aggregation each of the flocks was connected to the next via a poly-line.  Those lines were the divided to create points, these points were affected by the semi circles, which effectively represent spheres of influence.  The points are then turned into floor plates.

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Flocking is the subtle organization of part to part relationships. One of the most common examples of this is obviously flocks of birds, such as the starlings at Otmoor(see video after the break). Flocking in that case consists of a couple elements. The first being clustering of parts, so these parts are forming a spatial relationship of proximity. The next being a correspondence to average heading, each of those starlings not only react to the spatial field of the others, but also to the direction in which they are headed. The final element is a collection of average mass, this is almost a example of part to whole, except for the fact that it is less a reaction and more of a product generated by the first two rules. The starlings as a field of objects generate an emergent condition, the first two elements are a reaction, while the center of mass is something else entirely it is an emergent product generated through the complexity of the system.

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