Morphogenetic Creations is an ongoing series of artworks that explore how intricate complex form, as often seen in nature, can be created emergently through computational simulation of growth processes. Inspired by the work of Alan Turing, D’Arcy Thompson and Ernst Haeckel, it exists at the boundary between art and science.
In this special forum talk, Andy Lomas will look at both the development of these artworks and the artist’s changing relationship with the computer: developing from simply being a medium to create computational art to one where it becomes an active collaborator in the process of exploring the possibilities of generative systems.
Drawing analogies with Kasparov’s Advanced Chess and the deliberate development of unstable aircraft using fly-by-wire technology, Andy will argue for a collaborative relationship with the computer that can free the artist to more fearlessly engage with the challenges of working with emergent systems that exhibit complex unpredictable behaviour.
This forum talk took place on Wednesday 10 April 2019. A recording of the talk is available below.