Circulation in and for the Artificial Life

A complex and abstract visual space, never static for even a single frame, profoundly disorients our perception of spatial structures that typically enable conventional perspectives and relationships of containment. In this project, we explore the notion of identity within such an unpredictable environment—something that persistently asserts itself or resists indiscernibility against complete unpredictability. This simulation generates multiple “entities,” each with a genetic code defining parameters of color, shape, and motion. These entities evolve through mutation and recombination based on a survival score, adapting to a chaotic and unstable space. Yet the evaluation of survival remains ambiguous, as the environment itself defies categorization. Still, a fragile form of identity emerges visually—fluctuating through color, scale, and movement while resisting dissolution. Sound, too, operates within a similar recursive logic. Instead of being predesigned, it follows algorithmic rules that both generate and process live cello improvisations. The improvised sounds are analyzed, computed, and reintroduced into the system, creating a feedback loop in which the audio reshapes the visuals in real time. The artificial life is thus confronted with its own identity through this evolving cycle, questioning whether a synthetic organism can ever act upon or against itself. This project, an artistic and speculative simulation, proposes “simulation itself” as a new aesthetic—beyond representation, beyond the hyperreal—where evolution, sound, and perception form an autonomous, self-referential reality.