A Piece That I Admire:
​Drei Klavierstuke by Cory Arcangel

I enjoy the hacker mentality of combining things together that at first glance should not be together and just making it work. I also enjoy works that mimic, mock, and experiment with 90s pop-culture and early Internet culture (See Arcangel’s other work, CLICKISTAN, or Jacob Bakkila’s @Horse_ebooks).  Even though this project is not computationally impressive on Arcangel’s part, I think that the premise and execution certainly makes up for it.

One Work That Surprised Me:
PHYSIS by Fabrica

PHYSIS from Fabrica on Vimeo.
I found PHYSIS to be upsettingly simple and admirable. I wish that I had made this.  I like how the simple combination of actuators and plants can conjure the small animal running through the brush that exists in the common animal and human consciousness.

And One That Disappointed Me:
Botanicus Interactus by Disney Research
This is the beginning of a very interesting project that I think falls short, unfortunately.  The video alludes to some evolving and interactive audiovisual displays attached to plants, however it is not discussed in detail.  It really is a novel mode of interacting with an object which is not known for its interactivity, however I would like to see it used to control something other than a few sounds or visual displays.