Octopi With Spikes!

Where would art be without computers?  Really, where would be we without Photo Shop??  With the development of our technology and our access to it, the face to modern art has changed drastically. 

When I read about Karl Sims, with his computer program that allows organisms to “grow” and mutate, I was instantly fascinated.  To me, the images themselves, without the political and technological sides, are lovely.  A little frightening, more than a little disconcerting, I grant you, but beautiful none the less.  

But what really makes me pause and think about Sims is the computer program he uses to create his artwork.  The ability of the program to diagram mutations is a spellbinding idea.  Stemming from the teachings of Charles Darwin, the program interprets the  ‘electronic DNA’ of the creature it depicts and then changes it,  makes allowances for natural mutations that could occur, changes that evolution probably never meant for those creatures to obtain.   

I look at this as a fantastic combination of science fiction and fantasy.  The images don’t look like any creature that we’ve ever seen here on earth, but the fact that the program works through the genetic mutations makes me think….  Is it possible that such creatures possibly could exist?  Who knows if the program that Sims developed is just art software, just a neat toy to change and re-mix what we already know and understand…or if the program has more to offer towards the prediction of genetic and evolutionary developments.  Personally, I would love to think that Sims created a program that can predict genetic mutations.  Not only would that be seriously cool and Nobel Prize worthy, it would be so much easier than waiting millions of years for nature to show them to us!