turmites.art: An art project by a tech geek

“In computer science, a turmite is a Turing machine which has an orientation as well as a current state and a “tape” that consists of an infinite two-dimensional grid of cells. The terms ant and vant are also used. Langton’s ant is a well-known type of turmite defined on the cells of a square grid. Paterson’s worms are a type of turmite defined on the edges of an isometric grid.” — Wikipedia.

I don’t remember how I came across turmites and turing machines as a kid. But I remember implementing Langton’s ant, originally in Locomotive Basic and then in asembly on my Amstrad 6128. The complexity and the illusion of something “alive” that occurred out of these very simple rules fascinated me.

35 years later, in a world that depends on pseudo-random number generators and one way hashes and is trying to create inteligence out of relatively simple computers, I return back to these constructs with a slightly different mindset.

I hope you enjoy my works!