Driessens & Verstappen
E-volver

E-volver is an interactive 'image-cultivating-machine' that develops digital images through artificial genetics and evolutionary techniques. Both from a methodical and visual perspective, the work interfaces with the work of the laboratory technicians and scientists who work in the actual building.

Driessens & Verstappen developed software that generates artificial ‘organisms’ measuring one pixel. Each ‘organism’ is made up of thirteen genes that together determine how the organism will ‘behave’ on the monitor. The genes read the properties of their eight surrounding pixels and, based on the value that they find, tell the organism what to do with the pixel on which it stands and to which pixel it should move to next. This creates colorful and dynamic patterns that remind one of cosmic or, indeed, microscopic processes.

Driessens & Verstappen determined that each image should be made up of eight separate ‘organisms’. Each image is like a garden in which eight newly-cultivated plants are left to their own devices. The way images look is not only a result of the collective behavior of the organisms, but also the result of the users in the Onderzoeksgebouw. By using the computer program, E-volver, visitors can influence the visual patterns that are being displayed on the monitors located in different parts of the building. They can deactivate one of the four pixel gardens by using the touch screen. Voting out the least exciting images, devalues those particular genes and, simultaneously, upgrades the genes of the three surviving pixel gardens. In other words a group of organisms evolves that contains properties that generate the most pleasing collective image. That is, until the computer “resets’’, which happens when a predetermined number of votes has been cast. And then the whole process begins again.

E-volver scratches the surface of the actual research that takes place in the LUMC and even corresponds to it. Whereas the scientists are mainly focused on biochemistry, genetics and the evolution of biological life, the artists concentrate on the possibilities that the underlying mechanisms of these processes can offer art by implementing them as a purely visual and image-generating system. In this way E-volver reflects the complexity of the biochemical universe as well as humanity’s desire for knowledge and understanding. Autonomous processes such as growth and evolution, which can maybe be understood theoretically but which are never directly perceptible in daily life, are made perceptible on a sensory level by E-volver. At the same time E-volver provides a genuine aesthetic experience. One could regard the image-cultivating-machine as a metaphor for different ways of seeing and thinking. As such it has become a prime example of an art work in which the interface between visual arts and science has been flawlessly represented.