“The Flocking Party” is most simply defined as a scientific journal. I felt that the journal format was a good perceptual technology for catalyzing scientific material. Because it presents the process of scientific research and represents it from a particular point of view. The journal is a firsthand account of Frank's exploration process. He tries to understand the effects of a renegade, biotech virus in 2035 that is infecting bird species. His electronic journal not only records his notes and drawings, but it also holds digital media as well, such as datasets, photos, videos, instant messages, and animations. Both Frank's personal life and research are recorded in the same journal, connecting his more familiar experiences of collaboration, family, and love with the process of scientific examination.

Before I go further, I would like to point out a peculiar example of the external representation that “The Flocking Party” explores, that is the self-portrait. Frank is a self-portrait of myself, but rather than looking into a mirror to create my portrait, I looked across a generation gap. Frank is my fictional son. I tried to imagine what it would be like for me, if I were my son in this dystopic future. Rather than an image of myself, I created an agent, who has behaviors, thoughts, fears, and eccentricities. The purpose for doing this was to create empathy for a future generation, both closing the generation gap and giving reasons to think about the long-term consequences of our decisions.

The self-portrait also represents the perceptual technologies and current events that I come in contact with daily. Frank's electronic journal is a combination of a sketchbook, a handheld organizer, and a laptop. I was curious to see what sort of device I would create out of this combination. Ultimately, the device represented a new way of collecting and transmitting data to the world outside the laboratory, indicating a shift in scientific fieldwork.

Some of the drawings by Frank are scans of etchings that I created specifically for the story. I used the technique of drypoint, where one scribes directly into the surface of the copper rather than etching the lines with an acid. The resulting print produces deeply moody blacks and holds ink in a looser and more atmospheric way on the plate than an etching. Rembrandt is revered for his drypoints, because they have such intimate and emotional qualities. His lines are delicate in one gesture and bold in the next. This medium seemed the most appropriate for Frank's three dreams. It is an old drawing technology that served the purpose of conveying the strong emotions that he feels in his dreams.

The way that Frank's drawings and images are crafted, unavoidably, comes from my own background as an artist. I have been in art school for ten years. My hard-earned skills as a thinker, draftsman, printmaker, animator, writer, and programmer are communicated through Frank. His research takes on the form of these highly descriptive and poetic technologies. Dipping these artistic methodologies into the ultramarine context of scientific research sends bubbles to the top of the aquarium, releasing some of the gaseous mystery bound in their art historical cores. These artistic methods then do things that they wouldn't in the usually bone-dry white cube. They take on an indigo depth of meaning from their connections to one another, the story, and the science.

But I struggle here in this dark aquarium to describe how the science changes the visual. I can say that the artistic methods are forced to change shape, when mimicking scientific aesthetics. Perhaps this shift alone gives the artistic vocabularies a greater flexibility. The genetic tree on page 17, for example, turns my interpretive digital images and drawing into a historic ordering of genetic history and molecular evolution (Landau 17). Drawn in a random order, the forms were later sorted out according to a lineage of shapes, giving the overall composition a flow it would not have taken otherwise.

This use of one disciplinary paradigm to change another carries throughout my process. My use of the researcher to convey my story is primarily a genre choice. Science fiction situates paradigms within contexts. Like Fontcuberta's use of Doctor Ameisenhaufen, Frank provides me with a way of stepping outside of myself, just enough to examine the psychology of my own research. By framing his subjectivity, I open the possibilities for examining my own presumptions in a more objective way.