Tiny particles, given movement and behavior directives by an unknown source, are suddenly released to the elements. They charge ahead, encountering one another and reacting and creating new shapes and patterns in their wake. Each time they move, the environment changes, entropy increases, and eventually the entire system devolves into chaos.

These are the miniature universes created by artist Brandon Morse, whose video exhibit Static opened Friday at the Connor Contemporary Art. Morse generates each one by designing abstract figures and programming them with a set of rules for interactions. As the system unfolds, the figures – spirals, lines, dots, squiggly things – behave as they’re told during a single encounter, but the end result is one of infinite possibilities.

Spinnaker (pictured) is especially nice because it is projected onto an entire wall space, rather than displayed on an LCD panel like the other videos in the show. In this piece a tightly bound, intricately woven spiral begins to unravel at the bottom. As the ‘threads’ become loose and fall away, they land on the growing pile underneath, bending and reacting to the movement, creating entirely new shapes as the spiral finally dissolves.