Nikzad Arabshahi

After a series of studies on generative arts and artificial life systems, artist Nikzad Arabshahi had the idea to reconstruct the essence of his paintings as an artificial life ecosystem (Soft Alife) to give the visual elements/components a certain degree of autonomy, and certain control over its own production to grow, develop and perform as a group of autopoiesis agents in real-time through algorithmic computer renderings.

The outcome of this idea/self-reflection is turned into living computational algorithms and implemented into the coding platforms by the artist to allow him to develop an artificial synthetic ecosystem formed on creating probable Alife (Artificial Organisms). This project does not simulate living components digitally on the computer. Instead, it is an experience of the possibilities of generating visual art as a “living computation” beyond the chemical solution. Therefore, it is constructed for synthesizing generative art based on the collective data and determined protocols. These data were captured, collected, and re-engineered by the artist during his study on underlying mechanics of behavioral decisions through the art-making process. and filtered via the established evolutionary protocols that were created for the Autogenesis project. The outcomes of these protocols provide all the necessary computation for the challenges of existence to the software-based system. An Alife that can develop the painterly experiences by growing artificially, as a consequence of a continuation of living computations, evaluating, reviewing, reflecting, and reinterpreting with no need of the creator/artist’s presence to control.