IN VIVO - IN VITRO

Critical Art Ensemble (CAE) | Eduardo Kac | Stelarc | Joe Davis | Karl Sims | Eva Sutton | Daniel Lee | Susan Alexjander | Polona Tratnik | IN VIVO - IN VITRO

1. EVOLVED VIRTUAL CREATURES (1994)
http://www.genarts.com/karl/evolved-virtual-creatures.html

Animations of 26 different virtual creatures that emerged from simulated evolutions.
Creatures are shown what resulted from each of four behavior optimization criteria:
1. Swimming speed (water environment)
2. Walking speed (land environment)
3. Jumping height (land environment)
4. Following ability (water environment)
Awards:
-Award for Video Math, Berlin Video Math Festival 1998.

2. PANSPERMIA (1990)
http://www.genarts.com/karl/panspermia.html
Director: Karl Sims
Audio/Visual: by Karl Sims
Sound by David Atherton, David Grimes, Steve Blake, Target Productions
Thanks to Lew Tucker, Jim Salem, Carl Feynman, Dave Sheppard, David Marvit, JP Massar, Gary Oberbrunner and Danny Hillis

Animation depicting a life cycle of an inter-galactic botanical life form
1990, Special Prize of the Jury, Fifth International Festival of Computer Graphics Films of Montreal
Awards:
-Final piece (Best in show), Siggraph, Film and Video show 1990
-First Prize for 3D Computer Graphics, Imagina Pixel INA Awards, Monte Carlo 1991
-Grand Prize, Golden Nica Animation Award, ARS-Electronica 1991, Linz, Austria
-Winner of "Jet d'Or" Award, International Conference of Computer Animation 1991, Geneva Switzerland
-"Best of the Festival" show, 1991 Berlin VideoFest
-Award for Theatrical Motion Picture, National Computer Graphics Association Video Theater 1991

3. LIQUID SELVES (1992)
http://www.genarts.com/karl/liquid-selves.html
Director: Karl Sims
Audio/Visual: by Karl Sims
Music by Peter Gabriel and John Paul Jones
Thanks to Lew Tucker, Jim Salem, Gary Oberbrunner, Matt Fitzgibbon, Dave Sheppard, David Marvit, Kleiser-Walczak, and Keith Waters
Produced for "Memory Palace" and Art Futura '92

Computer animation of human forms and faces, produced for Art \Futura and "Memory Palace" at the World Fair in Spain.
Awards:
-Grand Prize, Golden Nica Animation Award, ARS Electronica 1992 Linz, Austria
-Grand Prize for Art & Entertainment, NICOGRAPH 1992, Tokyo Japan
-Special Prize of the Jury, Imagina 1993, Monte Carlo.
-First Place Award for Technology, National Computer Graphics Association 1993 Video Theater.
-International Competition Prize Winner, 6th Berlin Video Festival, 1993

4. PRIMORDIAL DANCE (1991)
http://www.genarts.com/karl/primordial-dance.html
Software and Animation: Karl Sims
Music: David Grimes, Target Productions
Drums: Jim Salem, Abbi Spinner, Ken Schachat, Seth Goldstein
Thanks to: Peter Schroeder, Lew Tucker, Gary Oberbrunner, Matt Fitzgibbon, & Dave Sheppard

Animated sequences created using automatic morphing between "evolved" images.
Awards:
-Special Credit Award, Computer Animation Festival 1991, Aizu, Japan
-Grand Prize, Golden Nica Animation Award, ARS Electronica 1992,, Linz Austria
-First Prize for Art, Images du Futur, 6th International Computer Animation Competition, Montreal 1992.
-First Prize for Science, Computer Animation, Geneva, Switzerland 1992.
-Award for Research, Imagina Pixel INA 1992 Awards Show, Monte Carlo.
-Award for Research, National Computer Graphics Association 1992
-Technological Innovation Award, Computer Animation, Fifth Internation Computer Film Festival 1992, University of Geneva.
-First Prize, Eurographics, Cambridge, England 1992

5. PARTICLE DREAMS (1988)
http://www.genarts.com/karl/particle-dreams.html
Software and Animation: Karl Sims
Sound: Robert Moore, BLC Sound

Animated waterfall, snowstorm, and explosion, created with particle systems techniques.
Awards:
-Final piece (Best in show), Siggraph Film and Video show 1988
-First Prize for Research, Imagina 1989, Monte Carlo
-Prize of the Public, Images du Futur 1989, Monteal.

KARL SIMS
http://www.genarts.com/karl/
karl@genarts.com

Karl Sims studied computer graphics at the MIT Media Lab, and Life Sciences as an undergraduate at MIT. He currently leads GenArts, Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which creates special effects software for the motion picture industry. (http://www.genarts.com/karl)
He is most well known for using genetic programming to evolve virtual creatures that competed in various simulated environments.
While working at Thinking Machines, Sims wrote a landmark paper describing the virtual creatures he created. They used an artificial neural network to process input from virtual sensors and act on virtual muscles between cuboid 'limbs'. (www.wikipedia.com)