PURSUING DESTINY
48" x 84" 2005
Boids and Swarming Theory, Genetic Programming, and Complex Adaptive System
Kirby's inspiration for this painting came from two sources. Rudolf Arnheim wrote a book The Power of the Center, which is a study of how composition and vision relate in the visual arts. He presented fascinating examples of the interplay of hubs, centric, and eccentric energy in a painting. These ideas in composition sparked Kirby to use the experience in Heading Home with ants in a genetic-programming environment to branch out into other simulation paradigms, in this case swarming technology, to explore Arnheim's ideas. The resulting painting, called Pursuing Destiny, has hubs, centric and eccentric energy along with 993 swarming tadpoles responding to that energy.
This is a perfect example of the fusion of art and science into a holistic world in which the rich theories of art are reinvigorated by the play of programming and spontaneity. Kirby likens his paintings with Dulcinea to exploring a block of marble to see what possible sculpture could be inside. In this case, new tools and new ideas made for a completely different answer to "What's in the block of marble?"
Artificial-life ants selectively bred in a genetic-programming environment created the blue background for the painting. Tadpoles based on swarming were then incorporated based on rules about magnetism, repulsion, and avoidance of AI objects placed in their path.
To achieve the uneven distribution within the overall swarming movement, thirty-eight hidden spheres of varying radii were dropped into the swarm space. Each sphere represented areas of repulsion, i.e. areas the tadpoles had to swim around while on their swarming journey. Thus, you can see the different radial gaps in the overall pattern.
