Living Surfaces (2004) Sachiko Kodama

Collaborator: Prof.Hiroki Sayama, Yoko Fukuda, Prof.Hideki Koike

“Living Surface is an interactive art realizing a concept of animated interactive texture using Alife (Artificial life) model called "evoloop." “Evoloop”, developed by Prof. Sayama, is an algorithm that I used to produce dynamic computer generated (CG) texture that transforms interactively according to the input by an image recognition system.
Onto the square white canvas, a complicated and abstract computer-generated colored image is projected. This dynamic image changes when people move, with their hands, the small black wooden geometric shapes on the canvas. These wooden shapes are attached on the canvas by magnets.
By referencing Christopher Langton’s cellular automata, the concept of “death” was introduced into the “evoloop” algorithm. This allows the animated texture, created by evoloop, not only to reproduce and change but also to dissolve.
The evolving patterns generated by "evoloop" appear by recognizing the dynamic boundaries between the dark geometric shapes and the white canvas in real time, which are created by the many different positioning of the black wooden pieces. 

<Living Surfaces> has been shown twice in the past.
Imagination of Information Art(Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography),2004
Diva2004 Exhibit (Tokyo Institute Technology),2004

Artist's Personal Collection.