February 13, 2005

In a previous post, I noted how “genetic algorithms” are being used to design products. Commenter David Goldberg refers us to images created in a similar way.

The creator of this image, Steven Rooke, describes it like this:

In Nature, evolution proceeds by a Darwinian cycle of reproduction, random mutation, and survival of the fittest adult organisms through competition and cooperation to reproduce again. Over the eons, natural selection produces the evolution of diverse species adapted to their environments and each other.

I selectively breed my images in a tradition inspired by evolutionary art pioneer Karl Sims. From a library of images dating back to a primordial soup of virtual DNA I began constructing in 1993, I initiate a run by creating a population of around 100 images on a large computer screen. I examine each image and assign it an aesthetic fitness score, then command the population to spawn. Reproduction is accomplished by sexual mixing of virtual genes mostly from the fittest parents, accompanied by occasional random mutation, while particularly fit individuals survive intact into the next generation. A mosaic of new images then fills the screen and the cycle is repeated.