Artist name:
URL:
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/fine_art/milos/asnakedgene/index.html
Statement:
The theoretical component of the work addresses the problem of genetic representation in (creative) evolutionary systems that aspire to taking part in cultural production. The project's experimental work forces a reformulation of this problem in the more general terms of the necessary structuring of the search space. Cumulative (aesthetic) selection of “naked genes” is discussed as an alternative approach whereby no germ-line/somatic-line distinction is explicitly implemented. The feasibility of this general approach is demonstrated by a computer application, ASNakedGene, which (therefore) allows evolutionary runs to be seeded by arbitrary sets of digital (or digitised) images and generates variation through direct operation on the arrays of pixel values as opposed to genetic representations of them. For a more detailed introduction to ASNakedGene see Aesthetic Selection of Naked Genes (1MB PDF). For a simple gallery of images produced using ASNakedGene, see the "project basket". For a more involved view of the visual documentation, use the project's purpose-built image population browser.