Walker evolving in Detroit
WalkerOne, the simulation, is part of an exhibition at Work Detroit titled Time. The simulation will run for the duration of the show (22,194 generations as of Saturday), collecting data all along that I will incorporate into new animations. Some curious juxtapositions between the simulation and the “real” world occur since WalkerOne is projected onto the top half of a large window–the lower half of the window remains an opening to the outdoors. I’ll go back later to get an image from outside at night.
Video recording of the start of the simulation: WalkerOne
WalkerOne is part of a larger project titled Character Study: Character Study explores the expressive potential of a digital creature whose movement is generated by computationally simulated evolutionary processes. Like the rabbit hole that Alice falls through into Wonderland, 3-d computer simulators are a portal to virtual worlds where the properties of physical reality can be mimicked and altered. As the first subject of inquiry in a series of character movement studies, WalkerOne was placed in such an environment and challenged to scramble as far from its starting point as possible in twenty seconds. 14 other members of WalkerOne’s generation also endeavored one at a time to roll, twitch, flop, and lunge as far and as quickly as they could with their given physical parameters. The two who were most successful were selected and moved ahead to the next generation along with thirteen new walkers whose capabilities were assigned by random mutation of the previous generation. The process continues for thousands of generations. For the purposes of Character Study, where each creature ends up—which one goes the farthest—is actually of little significance; what matters is how they get there. Rather than computationally employing the principles of evolutionary biology in order to optimize efficiency, Character Study places digital creatures in simulated environments to procure animated sequences of serendipitously poignant and expressive body movements. Out of a construct that is part scientific experiment and part situation comedy emerge bodies and behaviors that are odd and unreal, but also alluringly familiar and right. The simulations are metaphorical trial runs that test ways of being in a difficult and indifferent world; vignettes of individual potential adapting to corporeal realities and opportunities for adaptation. In other words, typical stories of daily life within a body.