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PHYLAE

Could we define where the non-living ends and the living begins?

Ford Foundation

Graduation Thesis Project

An immersive art installation that evolves  abstract species representing a phylae. Continuity exists across natural species and natural forms. In computation, it is with the principle of continuity that AI is able to achieve remarkable feats. After all, creativity could also be looked at as the juxtaposition of different ideas combined and interpolated into one.

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Immersive Interaction

Phylae represents a biological taxonomy category that is used to identify species. This art installation evolves species in real-time as users interact with the sculpture creating a beautiful landscape of forms and colors.

The installation uses a XBOX Kinect sensor to detect user movement. The simulation and rendering is done on the Unity Game Engine. A geometry shader running on the GPU is used to generate the forms to create a real-time lag-less experience.

Computing Variation

The algorithm mutates genes between biological species as time progresses and as the user interacts. The mutation introduces random variation along with the copying of traits from the parent genes. This creates an infinite palette shapes, colors, and interactions just like nature.

The variation is continuous as the individual organisms are continuously evolving and there is no perceptible abrupt change in the organism pool. 

The lens of relationality allows for a systems like approach to forms and processes through computation.
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