EVOLVING ARTWORK / ONLINE

Images
live.

CAEDMON is a computer learning to create art, in an experiment by Maurizio Fusillo inspired by natural evolution. Two pool artworks fuse into a child image, which inherits its parents’ traits and can reproduce in turn.

Instagram likes exert evolutionary pressure: they favour the images that will pass on their traits. On the website, visitors can nominate works from WikiArt and vote for those that will join the population. The research changes with the preferences of the people following it.

How it works ↗

01 / THE POPULATION

Living pool ^{24 / 24}

The images living here can become parents. Their traits may continue in their descendants, even after they leave the pool.

CAEDMON

Fioritura in maschera

WIKIART

Equestrian Portrait of Philip III

Diego Velazquez

CAEDMON

Confine di rose

CAEDMON

Aureola di ventagli

0 POINTS

WIKIART

Ahasuerus at the End of the World

Adolf Hirémy-Hirschl

2 POINTS

CAEDMON

Uccelli fuori stagione

0 POINTS

WIKIART

Claude Monet Painting by the Edge of a Wood

John Singer Sargent

1 POINTS

CAEDMON

Mano contro sciabole

1 POINTS

CAEDMON

Abito a rombi

1 POINTS

WIKIART

Wheat Threshing

Ancient Egypt

1 POINTS

CAEDMON

Vortice di maschere

2 POINTS

WIKIART

Wolf and Fox Hunt

Peter Paul Rubens

1 POINTS

CAEDMON

Scacchiera in marcia

1 POINTS

CAEDMON

Vessillo di rose

1 POINTS

WIKIART

Ordination

Nicolas Poussin

1 POINTS

CAEDMON

Dialogo con la punta

2 POINTS

WIKIART

Joseph in Egypt

Jacopo Pontormo

1 POINTS

CAEDMON

Profilo in fiore

1 POINTS

WIKIART

Italian brigands surprised by papal troops

Horace Vernet

1 POINTS

CAEDMON

Croce e riflessi

1 POINTS

WIKIART

Théâtre de l'Opéra, Carnaval 1894

Jules Cheret

1 POINTS

CAEDMON

Vessillo al cuore

1 POINTS

CAEDMON

Auditorio di piume

1 POINTS

CAEDMON

Punte nere nella neve

1 POINTS

Explore the pool ↗

Every four hours, when eligible parents are available, a new artwork can be born.

02 / THE PUBLIC

Waiting ^WIKIART

Nominating and voting for an artwork introduces a new influence into the project. Three times a day, at 01:00, 09:00 and 17:00, the leading candidate may enter the pool: it stays there, encounters other images and can reproduce, passing its traits to future works.