The Sandbox Project is a collection of networked interactive code art objects.
Sandboxes are handcrafted wooden enclosures containing an LCD that displays a simulation of sand. An evolutionary algorithm animates the sand as if it is blown gently by a breeze. It accumulates into drifts that appear three-dimensional and shift over time, forming virtually endless patterns. You may shape these patterns with your finger: the sand disperses beneath your touch. Sandboxes are a medium for abstract expression. Yet the sand never ceases to evolve: it reclaims its territory through a gradual process of erosion. Sandboxes engage a dialog between a user's gesture and the evolutionary algorithm that governs the system.
You may connect your Sandbox to the Sandbox Network and open its play space to possibilities of spontaneous conversation. Your touch will extend into all Sandboxes across the Network, where anyone else's touch will similarly extend into your own. This opens possibilities for play, interpersonal interaction, and spontaneity. The dialog between the user's gesture and the Sandbox now spans across Sandboxes worldwide, anywhere there is broadband access to the Internet. Furthermore, the dialog is open to the participantion of others.
Sandboxes should be displayed on a short platform, sand facing upward. Several should be exhibited concurrently and out of sight from each other, separated by any distance, and available to each other via the Sandbox Network.