Evolutionary art is a branch ofgenerative art, in which the artist does not do the work of constructing the artwork, but rather lets a system do the construction. In evolutionary art, initially generated art is put through an iterated process of selection and modification to arrive at a final product, where it is the artist who is the selective agent.
Evolutionary art is to be distinguished fromBioArt, which uses living organisms as the material medium instead of paint, stone, metal, etc.
In common with biologicalevolution throughnatural selection oranimal husbandry, the members of a population undergoing artificial evolution modify their form or behavior over many reproductive generations in response to a selective regime.
Ininteractive evolution the selective regime may be applied by the viewer explicitly by selecting individuals which are aesthetically pleasing. Alternatively aselection pressure can be generated implicitly, for example according to the length of time a viewer spends near a piece of evolving art.
Equally, evolution may be employed as a mechanism for generating a dynamic world of adaptive individuals, in which theselection pressure is imposed by the program, and the viewer plays no role in selection, as in theBlack Shoals project.
Evolutionary Art and Computers, W Latham, S Todd, 1992, Academic Press
Genetic Algorithms in Visual Art and Music Special Edition: Leonardo. VOL. 35, ISSUE 2 - 2002 (Part I), C Johnson, J Romero Cardalda (eds), 2002, MIT Press
"Breed", evolved sculptures produced by rapid manufacturing techniques.
"Picbreeder"Archived 2011-07-25 at theWayback Machine, Collaborative breeder allowing branching from other users' creations that produces pictures like faces and spaceships.
"CFDG Mutate", a tool for image evolution based on Chris Coyne's Context Free Design Grammar.
"xTNZ", a three-dimensional ecosystem, where creatures evolve shapes and sounds.
