A few years ago I saw a demo of MIT’s connectables which allowed interactions to pass between physical objects that were within a certain proximity to each other. The idea showed a ton of potential for user interface and user experience design. The video below is a similar concept from panGenerator. Built from Adrunio this is an an emergent a/v installation for the Copernicus Science Centre Festival 2013.  The links in the quote below take you to a more detailed description of  how the installation was built. This is a great example of how art, technology, programing, and science are blending together to create something new and unique.

“The installation for the new media and technology oriented Transformations Festival and given the central idea of this years edition – empowering people via new tools such as 3d printing and new collaboration frameworks, the team decided to implement an idea they developed some time ago. They strived for something that generates intricate emergent behaviours based on very simple and autonomous building blocks.”