A year of field data. Then an agent dreams it back.
Single-channel video, seamless loop, 6:30.
The interactive descent on this page needs JavaScript. The work itself does not — write to arpent.in.
OUROBOROS
A year of field data. Then an agent dreams it back.
SINGLE-CHANNEL VIDEO · SEAMLESS LOOP · 6:30
Agent Dreams
The indices seed a diffusion model. It builds something else out of what it found: something that could be nature, or technology, or both at once. Each frame opens from inside the one before it, and the last is made from the same source as the first.
Nothing is separate. A leaf, a river, a circuit — one rhythm.
The descent
Eight frames from the video, each opening from inside the one before it: a chip that grew tentacles, a jellyfish, a flower, a galaxy. The ninth frame is the first one again — the loop closes. Scroll, or step with the arrow keys, or use the scale buttons on the right.
Three cuts of the loop as it goes to the projection, and below them four of the eight passes the agent made to close the ring. Nothing here plays until you press it. Each clip opens with what stands behind it: the master with its passport, each pass with the reading of the field data it grew from, the rule it drew, and the move it made.
MASTER 1216 × 1856 · 32 FPS · SEAMLESS · LAST FRAME FROM THE SAME SOURCE AS THE FIRST
PATTERNS · 30sThe ring at full frame: leaf, river, circuit, one rhythm and no single hero.
WAN 2.2 FLF · 832 × 1216 NATIVE · MORPH 0.8 · NO CUTS
NATIVE · 30sFlower and circuit board grown into one body. The native render, before the crop to 19:29.
DELIVERY CUT · 19:29 · 60 S OF 6:30 · STEREO
EXCERPT · 60sOne minute of the 6:30 master, cropped to 19:29 for a 190 × 290 cm vertical projection. 1216 × 1856, 32 fps, H.264, with a ProRes copy alongside.
THE AGENT’S PASSES · four of eight · bridge_model.json → keyframe → Wan 2.2 FLF · press one to read what it was reading
PASS 03 · RIPPLES → CAUSTIC NETREADS · H10, the widest spectrum: 16,057 sounds and 199 taxa in a year, more than any other station RULE · density is a lattice, not a mass: every knot a crossing SOURCE · ripples and caustics photographed on site MOVE · the ripples sharpen into a net of light · morph 0.8
03ripples → caustic net
PASS 04 · LIGHT NET → CLAY CRACKSREADS · 13 cables, Jaccard 0.34–0.70: neighbouring stations share a third to two thirds of their species RULE · overlap is held in a corridor, never 0, never 1: no clone, no island MOVE · the net dries into a crack network, every cell touching its neighbours, none a copy · morph 0.8
04light net → clay cracks
PASS 05 · CRACKS → RIVER VALLEYREADS · H1, the hub: five cables, 592 camera detections, the most connected station RULE · the busiest node is a channel, not a point SOURCE · a satellite tile of the meanders MOVE · the cracks widen into a meandering valley: the hub becomes the river · morph 0.8
05cracks → river valley
PASS 07 · STRATA → STAR FIELDREADS · H14, no recorder for 365 days: 0 sounds, 399 camera detections, the statistical outlier RULE · a hole in the monitoring is part of the model: what is not heard is not empty, it is far SOURCE · a wet limestone split; the stars are the microscopy re-graded MOVE · the strata dissolve into a star field · morph 0.8
07strata → star field
HOTSPOTS · pylons + cables, bridge_model.json
—distance is shared composition, not geography
THE AGENT’S ROUTE · dream.morph_route, bridge_model.json
flock over the rows→drone swarm holding formation
acoustic hotspot H9→server rack, entropy of traffic
jaccard cables→fibre bundle, partial overlap
peripheral H4 / H6→cold standby, dark racks
turtle dove 1428→one rare packet in a noisy channel
back to the flock
LOOP
Seamless, 6:30 · hardware playback with no pause at the seam
SOUND
Stereo
A year of camera traps.
Twelve stations on one landscape beside a working production. Cameras and audio recorders ran for 365 days and were serviced by hand, through the winter.
PERIOD
365 days · 12 stations
29 May 2025 — 28 May 2026
CAMERA
4,584 detections · 35 taxa
Shannon H′ 2.26 · Pielou J 0.70
ACOUSTIC
30,594 detections · 195 taxa
Shannon H′ 3.68 · confidence > 0.8
European Turtle Dove, Streptopelia turtur — Vulnerable. 1,428 detections out of 30,594: under five percent of the traffic, and the reason the parcel counts.
GOLDEN JACKALCARDS OUTWILD BOARROWS UNDER SNOWRED FOXBROWN HARETHE STREAMCHANGING BATTERIESTURBINE BEYOND THE ROWSPHEASANTS
