American Dream Cycle (Payload)
A live art performance using computer code and genetic algorithms.
International Generative Art Conference, Milan, Italy
2009
Further Resources
American Dream Cycle (Payload)
Attending the Generative Art International Conference, GA2009, at the Politecnico di Milano University, Milan, Italy in December of 2009, I presented in real time, computer code using genetic algorithms which produced images and text that became the basis for a live art performance.
Description & Methods
I used as my source daily quotes from Rush Limbaugh's talk radio show, passing this text to Altavista Image Search. Using a Darwinian model, images are downloaded creating the initial population, their fitness is measured, some die off, others go on to reproduce. The presented images were a selection of multiple generations, and the composite text was read out loud as a collaboration between myself and Rush Limbaugh.
Conclusions
Through simple change, great complexity can develop. What does it mean to be an artist living in a beautiful universe with no maker? This is a contradiction with the tradition of artists making art and design with a specific goal in mind. Evolutionary processes turn this tradition upside down. I had a moment of clarity when I realized that using a genetic algorithm all possible solutions exist in a concepetual matrix of potential combinations. I then began to understand that designs are not created, but discovered. Rules of fitness are an act of aesthetics. Evolutionary art is a revolutionary act.
Load (Limbaugh) Cruft
Similar algorithms and concepts from the performance American Dream Cycle (Payload) were used to create Load (Limbaugh) Cruft, which consumes and digests the works of Rush Limbaugh.
Load (Obama) Cruft
Similar algorithms and concepts from the performance American Dream Cycle (Payload) were used to create Load (Obama) Cruft, which consumes and digests the works of President Barak Obama.
