A-Volve

title

1994

year

Christa Sommerer, Laurent Mignonneau

author

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synopsis

A—Volve (1994—97) is a seminal interactive installation bridging the real and virtual worlds, in which the visitors using a touch screen can design specific forms of three—dimensional artificial fish—like creatures and interact with them in the real glass pool filled with water. The creatures move and behave according to their „physical” forms determined by the visitors. They adapt themselves to the environment and events, they get killed by predators, hunt the weaker and compete with each for food. More ↓↑

Their life—cycle is limited and they die a natural death when they reach certain age. The strongest creatures survive the competition and reproduce if they find a suitable partner. The off—spring carry the genetic code of their parents, undergo mutations and recombinations. The mode of interaction with the creatures is as smooth and natural as the environment of the installation — water. All virtual actions and events are executed without any delay in this responsive life—like setting. The work, awarded several times, among other with the Golden Nica Prix Ars Electronica Award in 1994, is an oustanding early example of interactive art work using genetic algorithms and virtual reality.

The production of work was supported by ICC—IntercommunicationCenter NTT, Japan and NSCA, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, Illinois, USA and realized at ATR Advanced Telecommunications Research Lab, Japan.

Place and date of recording: 5th International Sound Basis Visual Art Festival WRO 95, exhibition „Art Between High and Low Technology”, BWA Awangarda Gallery, Wrocław, May 3rd—7th, 1995

video

artist's bio

Christa Sommerer (AT), b. 1964, and Laurent Mignonneau (FR), b. 1967, are internationally recognized media artists and researchers working together since 1992 in the field of interactive media installation. Their pioneering works, often inspired by biological systems, explore and employ principles of artificial life and complex generative structures. By developing innovative user interfaces, the artists create works with remarkably intuitive modes of multilayered interaction.