The Wildebeat project is about interaction and sensitization.

Movements of wild Tanzanian Wildebeest (as seen through gps tracking data streams) are channeled into our environment carrying with it information on the speed, direction, gender, age and location of each sampled animal. These movements will create a baseline visual and aural environment as their data points are extrapolated into rhythm, sound, color and pattern.

When human visitors enter the project space, currently under development and funded by the Neukom Institute, they will also be charted, their movements, rhythms, velocities, shapes and directions re-processed into a continuous stream of unique sounds, colors, patterns and shapes.

While human Visitor/Participant movement will have the power to alter the overall visual display and soundscape, it will not erase or change the input derived from the wildebeest themselves. Visitor movements will have the power to shape the development only of the visual and sound display as a whole as it evolves in real-time.

The Wildebeest and Human patterns will influence each other, play off each other, change each other, create something new.

Wildebeat Group

Thomas Morrison, Wildebeest Researcher; PhD Candidate, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Program
H. Seano Whitecloud, Interactive Artist
John Eikens, CS Major, Neukom Scholar
Darren Cheng, CS Major, Neukom Scholar