Yesterday night we had the Konstanzer Lange Nacht der Wissenschaft, a whole evening where scientists present their work to the general public. I was excited to also participate this year and had a couple boards installed with posters and photos about my work, and a big screen that showcased collective moving stickleback shoals with the sophisticated tracking and processing we use projected on top.

This special evening was also a great opportunity to present a very new project I have been working on the last month with Dutch design duo Studio Toer. Supported by a Zukunftskolleg Intersectoral grant we have been exploring the artistic possibilities to showcase the amazing aspects of collective animal behaviour. Last night I presented our very new project school of lights, a group of autonomous moving lights that school and swarm together.

Demo of a preliminary stage of the autonomous light installation School Of Lights, a creation by myself and Studio Toer

Despite the fact that the football world cup was playing yesterday night, I had a lot of nice interactions with the diverse crowd of people that visisted my stand, and it was especially nice to see them wonder about the socially interacting lights.