In 2003, inspired by Karl Sims “Particle Dreams”, I created Reactive, an experiment that evolved out of attempting to answer the question: “Can an image behave?” If a digital image is a visual representation of colors (i.e. pixels) on a grid (i.e. screen or piece of paper), what if each element of this grid were able to act on its own? Reactive evolved out of experimenting with the idea of visualizing each pixel of an image as an independent agent moving throughout a virtual space. In this 2005 version, entitled Reactivate, I’m injecting the particles with greater intelligence and awareness. While Reactive was simply a live video installation that amplified a viewer’s movements with exploding particle systems, Reactivate is a live video ecosystem, where each being is encoded with an understanding of its environment and neighbors, changing its appearance and behavior in real-time as the viewer interacts.