After much deliberation and many arguments our group has decided on www.clarity3d.com as our business site. Now we just have to make the bloody thing. Yay!
I think its important as a creative person to get inspiration ‘outside the box’. You could go around looking at what everyone else is doing in web design for instance, but then you would end up making a site that looks like everyone else’s. So instead i’ve been looking to traditional art and books for ideas on creating an electronic organism.
Science-Art.com has a gallery packed full of natures creatures among other things. I’ve been focussed on the idea of simple organisms so much I almost forgot there were big mammal things that are also classified as organisms. But creating a project to simulate an eco-system of artificial humans in Flash would take me a little longer than the deadline, so maybe its just as well.
This makes me think of a rotating 3D cube with mini eco-systems on each face, raging in a battle for survival against the other sides of the cube.
There are so many beautiful patterns in nature which have a mathematical quality, capable of being simulated in a few lines of code. Fractals are especially cool in this way, then add some movement and you’ve got yourself an organism.
On another note, I remember reading some of the crazy behaviors of creatures in The Selfish Gene, one that popped into mind was the Mexican social spider, so I google booked it.
“If a spider is disturbed and driven out of its retreat, it darts across the rock and, in the absence of a vacant crevice to hide in, may seek refuge in the hiding place of another spider of the same species. If the other spider is in residence when the intruder enters, it does not attack but darts out and seeks a new refuge of its own. Thus once the first spider is disturbed the process of sequential displacement from web to web may continue for several seconds, often causing a majority of the spiders in the aggregation to shift from their home refuge to an alien one”
Can you imagine that? It only takes on spider in the middle of thousands of the little buggers to get disturbed and the whole lot of them set off darting around like headless chickens.
I’ve been thinking about 3D stuff for a project proposal to create a digital art piece, but have so far come up totally uninspired.
Then I happen to stumble upon this cube of coolness by James Clar, and see light at the end of the tunnel.
Each 3D Display Cube is a true spatial display unit that utilizes 1000 individually controllable LEDs to create 3D forms and animations.
So how do you change a bulb when it blows out again? Yeah, that one right in the middle.
The idea behind spore is evolution, playing as a creature and adding to it’s development with interaction, right up to a galactic level.
I like the idea of a mutating organism that can be transfered in electronic form (mobiles/email/web?) so I came up with a few sketchy ideas on that.
Idea 1:
Viral creature that tricks the user into spreading it over bluetooth (mobile malware? possible ethical implications?)
Very annoying, but kids like to annoy each other so what could be more perfect than to mess with your mates mobile.
Nice idea, but I don’t think so.
Idea 2:
Creatures that pass down genes/characteristics to offspring by ‘mating’ via bluetooth. Creatures can mutate to create new genes. Perhaps a mini simulation of evolution?
Example:
Player A creates a new creature by choosing characteristics that he/she likes. Player B does the same, and thinks it would be nice to get together with Player A. Magical bluetooth things happen and a new creature pops out, with some of the genes from A and some from B, but also a few new individual characteristics of it’s own. Creatures are born and old ones die, and players can fill the screen with a population of evolving organisms. Maybe even inter-breeding will take place. Or maybe not, thats just sick.
So the idea is kinda like multiplayer Tamigotchi, but with sex.
Places of Interest
- Complexification showcases the beauty of code by generative art. Offspring is just one of the projects of particular interest.
- The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins offers genius thinking and serious food for thought.
- http://www.levitated.net/daily/ has all the source-code you could need.
- Sodarace lets you create your own organism and race it against others. Artificial intelligence algorithms made fun.