A-Volve by Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau

A-Volve (1993–94) was an interactive-evolutionary art environment that stands as an important step in the development of AI art. For the piece, visitors could draw virtual organisms using a sensor pencil, which then came to life in a water-filled glass pool. These three-dimensional creatures reacted to human behavior, evolving and interacting with each other and the visitors.

This participatory-evolutionary-immersive art display anticipates the work of Karl Sims’s Galapagos in 1997. The algorithmic evolution achieved by Sommerer and Mignonneau also anticipate machine learning and GAN art. The process for the piece worked as follows:

“If two strong creatures meet, they can create an offspring and a new creature can be born. It carries the genetic code of its parents. Mutation and cross-over provides a nature-like reproduction mechanism, that follows the genetic rules of Mendel.“

This evolutionary process is a much more simplified version of the complex learning machines are capable of today. But this early work is a direct predecessor. Artists in the upcoming decades would continue to automate the process until now these tasks are done “under the hood” and instantly. But this is a hugely important step in the development of AI-art-as-we-know-it-today.

Beyond its significance to the development of AI art, the installation blurred the lines between real and unreal, exploring popular themes of generative art at the time: concepts of artificial life and evolution, while adding Sommerer and Mignonneau’s distinct individuality. A-Volve continued the artists' exploration of natural interfaces and complex interactivity, challenging perceptions of reality and creating a dynamic ecosystem where visitors become integral participants in the evolution of artificial life. This would continue into the next decade as well with Life Writer (2006).