Net Work: an interactive artwork designed using an interdisciplinary performative approach

In this paper we outline an interdisciplinary collaborative approach to problem solving that can be characterised as performative as both the goals and solutions develop over time through an open-ended process of trial-and-error. We describe two projects where this methodology has been successfully applied. We first give an overview of the CELL project where the performative approach led to a significant change in the way that scientist Neil Theise investigated stem cells. The success of this project directly led to the work which is the main focus of this paper: the design of Net Work, an interactive artwork that consists of a grid of autonomous buoys that emit different coloured light in response to the environment and the state of neighbouring buoys. We describe our performative approach to building the Net Work prototype and outline in detail its control system which is based on Ashby's homeostat model. The paper concludes with a short discussion of some of the benefits and pitfalls of an interdisciplinary collaborative approach to problem solving.