Created by Matteo Marangoni and Dieter Vandoren, Komorebi is a swarm of artificial creatures that make music in response to the sun, the clouds and the shadows of trees moving in the wind. The work suggests that “life” is not an exceptional property of organic life forms, but also a property of complex systems reaching beyond biological life as we understand it.

Emergent systems have been widely explored within digital artworks that are created in virtual environments and which are experienced through screen and/or speaker interfaces. Komorebi is a swarm that uses computation to exist fluidly within complex spatial settings.

Each physical agent of Komorebi runs the program independently on a different processor. Information between agents is shared exclusively through physical signals which are filtered by the intervening space between them. Komorebi has been presented in parks, gardens and forests where sometimes a swarm of 100 electronic creatures is spread out over a large area. The swarm navigates within a set of sonic and musical parameters, generating spatial music that is constantly changing in step with the weather. Visitors can walk and explore how the music changes in space, or sit and listen to how it evolves over time.

Komorebi is available as a iii Sensory Kit (sold out), and Komorebi Larva / DIY kit.

Project Page | Matteo Marangoni | Dieter Vandoren

Komorebi is developed with the assistance of Daan Johan (PCB design), Riccardo Marogna (DSP programming), Caspar Krijgsman (OTA programming), Mihalis Shammas and Nicolò Merendino (body design), Rafaele Andrade (3D printing prototypes), Luuk Meints and Ionela Pop (horn casting), Willem Werkplaats (CNC milling), Francesco Di Maggio, Tingyi Jiang, Maria Oosterveen and Siavash Jafari (assembly).

See also → Pixi – Nature aware, self-sufficient, digital organism ‘breathes’ in the forest