Growth by Yoichiro Kawaguchi

After working on his GROWTH algorithm for several years at this point, Kawaguchi exhibits his first artistic expression from the algorithm with Growth.

This truly groundbreaking piece by Kawaguchi, who developed the animation using a supercomputer in Osaka, Japan, is some of the earliest evolutionary and artificial life art. Thus, it is some of the first proto-AI art, as we know AI art today.

This piece explains more about the computing power that the brilliant Kawaguchi took full advantage of: “Kawaguchi worked with Professor Koichi Omura at the University of Osaka when his lab developed LINKS-1, a computer graphic system for realistic renderings.

The machine was unprecedented for its processing power and, unlike supercomputers at the time, consisted of 34–62 regular-size processors connected in a networked system for faster calculations and the easy removal of deficient parts. From summer 1982 to spring 1983—an extraordinarily short duration process—Omura and Kawaguchi used LINKS to develop Growth: Mysterious Galaxy, a complex, 5-minute-long animation sequence that stunned the computer art community at ACM SIGGRAPH that year, including Pixar’s then-president Ed Catmull, who noted the piece’s unique sharpness and image quality.”