The Archean project explores self organization by multiplying the six dimensional strings in a matrix world with a transformation matrix, a little like Conway's game of life, but then in full color. From a random pattern something more ordered emerges. Different every time!
Self-organization is a concept I learned about from a book by Stuart Kaufman. The idea is that any systems consisting out of subsystems with a great number of rules that define interactions between the subsystems will show signs of self-organization. Some systems will help others, while other systems will slow neighbors. In these kind of environments it is unavoidable that positive feedback loops will occur. A will help B, B will help C and C will help A, so the whole system will grow in an ABC pattern.
Archean is an implementation of these ideas in the form of a cellular automatum. The idea is rather simple. Each cell contains a vector of size 6. The average vector of the neighbourhood is then calculated and multiplied by a matrix. This result is added to the vector of the cell. By mapping the six reals to rgb space and filling the matrix with random numbers, fascinating patterns spring to life.