Closeness: On the relationship of multi-agent algorithms and robotic fabrication

This paper demonstrates the effect of feedback between algorithmic, robotic and material behaviors on the emergent formal character of several recent design projects. These projects demonstrate a progression from single step linear feedback between fabrication and simulation constraints to the attribution of new material agency through real-time and recursive feedback between multi-agent behaviors and physical material. We present a prototype robotic control system and methodology that allows design to take place in and on an object rather than in its anticipation, and we speculate on the implications for generative design and robotic fabrication.