In the beginning, there was a shared research interest: How can swarm-based technology be embedded in everyday media use and what new possibilities of communication or artistic expression does it offer as a visual medium? The Japanese telecommunications company NTT and the Ars Electronica Futurelab have been investigating these questions since 2017 and have repeatedly been able to present new results and approaches to their cooperation in recent years. While the focus of the joint research was initially on drone based navigation and signage, the approach quickly expanded to more complex applications of swarm technologies using both drone and ground robots. Swarm Arena sketches out how such hybrid swarms could augment and enhance large live-viewing events in stadiums and public spaces.
