By Stephen Bell and Sarah Thompson

The trails in this work are what is left of the agents when they finish their run.

Like the traces we and others leave after we die that record the influences on us and those we have on others.

Like dead flowers they hint at what came before but do not share the same glory or despair, they are tokens of what came to pass.

In the way of ghosts they reveal yet do not reveal.

We are left to interpret the impressions of being, forever only able to surmise or speculate upon the meanings that we know must have been there.

What is real and what is imagined, we cannot know for sure.

This is essence of grief and joy, the truth of loss, and of love.

Memento Mori

Memento Vivere

What led to the death of a soldier, the death of a child, to a mother, a father, a pet, a wild animal?

What led to their birth, their being?

The story of their lives is too mysterious to comprehend and yet we know that they were, for a time, and like fallen leaves or blossoms they were.

Traces of Being is a composite of computer animation and mixed media made by me and Sarah Thompson to be included in the Computer Arts Society showreel at V&A Digital Design Weekend 2026. (September 18 – 20, South Kensington). CG trails were generated using my agent-generated behavioural programming techniques originally developed for Smallworld. The mixed media work Life Cycle was made by Sarah Thompson.