DRIESSENS & VERSTAPPEN [NL]
Breed / E-volved Cultures (2001 – 2011)
Driessens & Verstappen / Breed 1.2 #e365
Breed
Breed is a computer program that uses artificial evolution to grow very detailed sculptures. The purpose of each growth is to generate by cell division from a single cell a detailed form that can be materialised. On the basis of selection and mutation a code is gradually developed that best fulfils this “fitness” criterion and thus yields a workable form. The designs were initially made in plywood. Currently the objects can be made in nylon and instainless steel by using 3D printing techniques. This automates the whole process from design to execution: the industrial production of unique artefacts.
Computers are powerful machines to harness artificial evolution to create visual images. To achieve this one need to design genetic algorithms and evolutionary programs. Evolutionary programs allow artefacts to be “bred”, rather than designing them by hand. Through a process of mutation and selection, each new generation is increasingly well adapted to the desired “fitness” criteria. Breed is an example of such software that uses Artificial Evolution to generate detailed sculptures. The algorithm that was designed is based on two different processes: cell-division and genetic evolution.
E-volved Cultures (triplet #4)
E-volved Cultures (2005-2011) is a software presentation in which an artificial landscape grows in real time. Virtual agents that leave visual traces in interaction with their environment generate the dynamic pixel-landscape. The colourful abstract animations arouse associations with landscapes, geological processes, cloud formations, fungal growth, organ tissues or satellite photos, but ultimately they still avoid any definitive identification. Click on the images above to see different recorded fragments of E-volved Cultures.
Bio
Driessens & Verstappen
The Amsterdam based artist couple Erwin Driessens (1963 Wessem) and Maria Verstappen (1964 Someren) have worked together since 1990. After their study at the Maastricht Academy of Fine Arts and the Rijksakademie Amsterdam, they jointly developed a multifaceted oeuvre of software, machines and objects. Their research focuses on the possibilities that physical, chemical and computer algorithms can offer for the development of image generating processes.
Driessens & Verstappen participated in numerous exhibitions in the Netherlands and abroad, a.o. Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen Rotterdam, LABoral Gijón, IVAM Institute Valencia, Museum Kröller-Müller Otterlo, Neue Pinakothek München. The couple gives lectures and presentations at universities, art academies, festivals and conferences, a.o. Siggraph Los Angeles, Sonic Acts Amsterdam, Second Iteration Melbourne. In 1999 and 2001 their Tickle robot projects have been awarded first prize at VIDA, an international competition for Art & Artificial Life. Since 2001 the artists are represented by gallery VOUS ETES ICI.
English