Synch.Live is a live action cooperative game at the intersection of art, science, technology and social impact, modeled on flocking birds and synchronous fireflies.

How does it work?
Participants wear hats equipped with randomly flashing lights and move in a bounded space, without talking or touching, with the goal of synchronizing their lights. The lights are programmed to become less random as the group’s motion becomes more coherent, and finally to synchronize when the group manifests flocking behavior. Each hat is equipped with a Raspberry Pi minicomputer that connects to a central system; the central system extracts player trajectories in real time and computes an emergence value. If the group passes a specific emergence value threshold, they “win” the game.

How do you measure emergence?
Three of Synch.Live’s scientific advisors, with colleagues, developed a landmark algorithm to quantify emergence. In Synch.Live, we use the algorithm to measure how emergent the group as a whole becomes. While the algorithm is tested, our application—measuring emergent behavior among humans—is radically new. Can people learn to emerge without instruction? Is it easier to emerge with people you know? Will people’s feelings of connectedness or empathy change after emerging with others? Can we use Synch.Live to help people cooperate, solve conflicts and build teams?

Will people emerge?
Yes! In June 2022, we staged a series of public games/ formal experiments at Imperial College London and Queen Mary University of London with 300 participants. We demonstrated that groups of people can manifest collective motion in a self-organized way using a feedback mechanism. With proof of concept in hand, we are now developing specific applications for the Synch.Live experience and technology system.

 We are grateful to Visions2030 for providing seed and accelerator monies for this project.