Pherographs and other hidden landscapes

Due to some of their traits (non-linearity, emergent behaviour, self-organisation), complex systems raised the interest of artists and theorists and went beyond a scientific framework, entering the realm of visual arts. Art with complex systems is usually referred to as artificial (or generative) art. This paper discusses pherographia, a term that describes the creative use of an artificial intelligence model based on the concepts of stigmergy and cooperation amongst social insects. The system is dynamic, interacts with different types of environment, and reflects properties of insects' societies such as self-organisation, memory and adaptability to changes. Pherographia is addressed from its genesis as a swarm model to its use as an artificial art tool and metaphor for creating a figurative and abstract body-of-work that has been presented to a heterogeneous audience. Motivation and details of the artworks are discussed, as well as their links to artificial art, digital art and photography.