

Natural Selection

Jack Kalish

A public art installation displaying visuals that evolve to become more attractive based on what the audience wants to see.

Natural Selection is a public art installation that comments on the relationship between the art object and the audience that perceives is. This screen-based work presents the audience with visual forms that evolve over time in response to the attention of the audience.

Through the simple act of looking at the image, users essentially "vote" on what they want to see and what they don't want to see. As the installation learns about the preferences of the audience, genetic algorithms are used to mutate the imagery. Over time, small alterations result in large cumulative changes. The visualization thus evolves to represent what the community around the work finds to be attractive.