Spore
by Will Wright (USA, 2008)
The creature editor is an integral part of a computer game developed by the game company Electronic Arts. It is an epic of artificial life that involves the origin of a life, its evolution, the creation of a technological civilization, and eventually its end.
Will Wright is a creator of classic games such as SimCity and The Sims.
youTAG
by Lucas Bambozzi (Brazil, 2008)
A work of web art composed basically of a special system that searches for keywords associated to videos and photos on the Internet. Based on a specific search, the visitor is emailed a remixed audiovisual file – of unknown authorship – derived from material previously existing and available on Internet. A Rumos Itaú Cultural Cybernetic Art award-winning artwork in 2007.
Learn more about emergency, a central concept to some breeders of the art technology.
Lucas Bambozzi is a journalist with a degree from Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG). Since the 1980s he has developed projects involving the expressivity of audiovisual language, with emphasis on electronic media. He has produced artworks involving video, film, installation, interactive projects and Internet.
Mikado_Xplosion
by Pascal Dombis (France, 2008)
The printout of an artwork classified as software art. It involves the overlaying of 1.5 million colored lines, which recall the childhood game of Pick-Up Sticks. This artwork is the result of a computer program based on a simple geometric image, with the format of a tree. The artwork was elaborated to be applied to the façade of the Itaú Cultural Building.
Learn more about emergency, a central concept to some breeders of the art technology.
Pascal Dombis lives and works in Paris, France. His artwork received an honorable mention at Ars Electronica in 1994, and has been featured at exhibitions of generative and fractal art throughout Europe and in the United States. In his artwork, he explores the paradoxical coexistence between ordered control and chaotic random forces.
RAP3 – Robotic Action Painter
by Leonel Moura (Portugal, 2006)
An artist robot that makes paintings in gestural abstract style based on information in its code along with inputs from the public. Since 2007 it has been installed in the Hall of Human Origins at the New York Museum of Natural History, in permanent creative activity. This device generates original compositions, deciding on its own when the painting is finished, signing each one in the lower right corner just like a human artist.
Learn more about cybernetics, and understand basic concepts of artificial intelligence.
Leonel Moura is an artist who works in the area of artificial intelligence and robotics. In 2007 he created Robotarium, the first zoo of robots, located in Alverca, Portugal. That same year, he inaugurated the gallery Leonel Moura Arte, dedicated exclusively to exhibitions of art created by robots.
Tumbling Dream Chambers
by Boredomresearch (England, 2007)
An artwork involving artificial life composed of the two previous works Biomes and Randomseeds. It is formed by five displays resembling Petri dishes – glass recipients used in scientific experiments and for the culture of bacteria in laboratories – which are “inoculated” with two “seeds.” In the virtual biomes, artificial microorganisms are born, evolve and die.
See also Eden, by Jon McCormack, an ecosystem of artificial life.
Boredomresearch is an English artist collective formed by Paul Smith and Vicky Isley, researchers in the field of animation and computer art at Bournemouth University, England.
PixFlow #2
by LAb[au] (Belgium, 2007)
A sculpture in the form of a console composed of four displays arranged horizontally. A program simulates a vectorial field in which the particles flow according to the evolution of the field’s density. The initial interaction that unfolds in the field provokes the emergence of totally unforeseen behavior among the particles.
Learn more about emergency, a central concept to some breeders of the art technology.
LAb[au] is a Belgian artist collective founded in 1995 by Els Vermang, Jérôme Decock and Manuel Abendroth. The group’s areas of interest range beyond architecture and urbanism (present in the abbreviated name) to also involve software art and VJing. Besides this, they hold symposiums and workshops with important talents such as Lev Manovich, Marcos Novak and Stanza.
Bacterias Argentinas
by Santiago Ortiz (Colombia, 2004)
A work of web art in which a dynamic model of autonomous agents – in the form of words in a grammatical network – eat each other. In this process, the “bacteria” exchange genetic information and give rise to the emergence of uncommon narratives.
Learn more about autonomy, a central concept to some breeders of the art technology.
Santiago Ortiz is an artist, mathematician and researcher in the areas of art, science, and fields of representation. He works with techniques of communication, creation and expression that combine narrative and literature as well as digital and architectural spaces.
The Mutation of the White Doe
by Nicolas Reeves (USA, 1997)
Three sculptures made of translucent polymer elaborated based on a genetic algorithm. When the distinct blocks thus constructed are brought together they recall Malevich’s architectural objects. The pedestal of each sculpture emits excerpts re-elaborated from “The White Doe,” a Scandinavian folklore song dating from remote times.
Nicolas Reeves is an architect with a degree from the University of Montreal, Canada. He is currently a professor in the Department of Design at the University of Quebec, in Montreal, and heads the NXI Gestatio, a laboratory for research and creation in computer science, architecture and design.
Reler
by Raquel Kogan (Brazil, 2008)
A bookcase composed of 50 book-objects. When opened, a mechanism sets off a recording of excerpts from texts by different authors. The public thus composes a “palimpsest” of sound, although each visitor can hear the excerpt of the specific book in his/her hands. A Rumos Itaú Cultural Cybernetic Art award-winning artwork in 2007.
Raquel Kogan is an architect, multimedia artist, engraver, and painter, represented by Galeria Leme. In 2003, she began the series Reflexão, which was presented at Ciber@rt 2004, held in Bilbao, Spain. In 2004, she developed the interactive artwork Projeção [Projection], at Paço das Artes, the intervention Fotoarte [Photoart], in Brasília, the installation 401 Lord Palace, in São Paulo, and interactive objects at the 11º Salão da Bahia, in Salvador.
Bachelor: The Dual Body
by Ki-Bong Rhee (Korea, 2003)
An installation composed of a book that makes delicate movements inside an aquarium while maintaining its stability by means of a dynamic balance between a magnetic field and the flow produced by a water pump. The artwork suggests cyclic principles that are counterpoised to immobility, while also evoking isolation and a constant sensation of emergence.
Ki-Bong Rhee has a degree in art from Seoul National University. He participated in the Gwangju Biennale, in 1997, and in Thermocline of Art, in Germany, in 2007.
Canções Submersas
by Vivian Caccuri (Brazil, 2008)
This installation sets up an interference of four carp – who live in a climate-controlled pool – with the public’s MP3 music. The movement of the animals’ swimming is recognized by a special software. According to how the fish move about and in relation to each other, the system modifies the music tracks in real time. This creates a “fluid cacophony” in the artwork’s environment, allowing for a “collective hearing” of the private sounds. A Rumos Itaú Cultural Cybernetic Art award-winning artwork in 2007.
Learn more about interactivity, a central concept to some breeders of the art technology.
Vivian Caccuri is an artist and researcher in the field of electronic art. She is the content coordinator and technical consultant for the Festival Internacional de Linguagem Eletrônica [International Festival of Electronic Language – File]. Her work explores the relation between sound, physical objects and information systems in electronic installations, audio performances and interactive devices.
Roots
by Roman Kirschner (Austria, 2005–2006)
A dynamic sculpture inspired in an experiment by Gordon Pask, in which the English scientist literally created an electrochemical computer in the 1950s. Electrodes in the form of wire rods immersed in an iron-sulfate solution receive electric charges. Black crystals grow at their ends like neurons, which attempt to connect with the crystals of other electrodes, and then dissolve.
Learn more about emergency, a central concept to some breeders of the art technology.
Roman Kirschner studied philosophy and history of art at the University of Vienna. He is currently a researcher at the Academy of Media and Art of Cologne, in Germany, and cofounder of the artist’s collective Für.
Performative Ecologies
by Ruairi Glynn (England, 2007)
A community of four robots is oriented by means of facial-pattern-recognition software. This artwork examines the interactive (and not only responsive) potential of robotic elements for engaging in forms of performative and nonverbal communication with the public.
Learn more about cybernetics, and understand basic concepts of artificial intelligence.
Ruairi Glynn began his career in art as a sculptor. He studied interactive design at the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, in London, and at the Institute of Digital Art and Technology, in Plymouth. He is a member of the group Interactive Architecture, of the Bartlett School of Architecture, in London. He studied under English cyberneticist Ranulph Glanville.
I/VOID/O
by Sandro Canavezzi de Abreu (Brazil, 2008)
An updated version of the installation VOID, in which the public observes the contents of a “black box” (actually, a mirrored acrylic sphere into which a virtual cube is internally projected), in which sounds are fused and inextricably blended with real and virtual images, giving rise to an unstable and inhospitable internal reality. A Rumos Itaú Cultural Cybernetic Art award-winning artwork in 2007.
Sandro Canavezzi de Abreu is an architect, and obtained his master’s degree in digital poetry from the School of Communication and Arts of the Universidade de São Paulo (ECA/USP), from 1998 to 2000. He also holds a specialist degree in generative systems from Codelab_berlin (2000–2002), and participated as a resident artist at Transmediale (Berlin, 2000–2002) and at V2_Org (Rotterdam, 2004–2005). He currently directs LAbI (Open Laboratory of Interactivity for the Dissemination of Scientific and Technological Knowledge), at the Universidade Federal de São Carlos (Ufscar).
Ultra-Nature
by Miguel Chevalier (Mexico, 2008)
A virtual garden whose plant life is composed of six varieties of colorful digital plants. Each one of them evolves according to its “genetic” characteristics and by its interaction with the public who, by means of sensors, cause the flowers to cross-pollinate each other, giving rise to new and unexpected blossoms.
Learn more about interactivity, a central concept to some breeders of the art technology.
Miguel Chevalier is known as one of the pioneers of digital art. Born in Mexico and residing in France, he graduated from the National Superior School of Fine Arts, in Paris, in the early 1980s. In 1994, he participated as a resident artist at Villa Kujoyama, in Kyoto, Japan.
The Bacterial Orchestra
by Martin Lübcke and Olle Cornéer (Sweden, 2006)
An orchestra made up of “auditory cells” that behave like an organism. Their interaction results in a kind of microphone-speaker feedback which, filtered through special software, gives rise to auditory evolutions that allude to different moments in the history of music, ranging from Mozart to acid house.
Learn more about emergency, a central concept to some breeders of the art technology.
Martin Lübcke is a consultant in the area of computer programming, and holds a Ph.D. in theoretical physics. He is also a member of the band Måfå.
Olle Cornéer is a DJ, a producer in the area of electronic music, and a member of projects such as Dibaba (represented by the labels Gigolo Records and Plong!) and Dada Life (Breastfed, Pickadoll). He also writes articles on music for the specialized press.