Visual arts experiments: artefacts by neural agents in social simulations

T. Barrass, B. App. Sc., Grad. Dip. Visual Arts, Grad. Dip. Mus. Tech.

School of Creative Arts, Melbourne University, Melbourne, Australia.

e-mail: t.barrass@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au

Abstract

In this visual arts study, a simulated population of neural agents is used to produce abstract drawings and animation. The agents develop drawing behaviours through the process of collectively interacting with the marks they leave on a page.

1. Neural agents for drawing

The approach visualises dynamic social structures in a system where the actions of individuals alter an environment, which in turn shapes each individual’s internal mappings between perception and action. Individuals are implemented as constrained mobile agents with unsupervised neural nets to map associations from their modelled sensors to motor functions. As the agents move around they leave paths behind them. Visual structures emerge on the page as the agents’ sensorimotor mappings adapt in response to one another’s marks.

The project is influenced by research into swarm building behaviour [1] and evolution of language [2]. The current work-in-progress continues with questions about how to read the images, whether as aesthetic artefacts, mathematical graphs, simulations, or in a combination of modes.

References

[1] Bonabeau, E., Theraulaz, G., Arpin, E. & Sardet, E. (1995). The building behaviour of lattice swarms. In: Brooks, R. and P. Maes. (Eds.) Artificial Life IV Proceedings (pages 307-312). MA: MIT Press

[2] Steels, L. & Kaplan, F. (1999) Collective Learning and Semiotic Dynamics. In: Floreano, D., Nicoud, J-D. & Mondada, F. (Eds.) Advances in Artificial Life: 5th European conference, ECAL’99 Proceedings. (pages 679-688). Berlin: Springer