C

Cello

Cello is a project that I have been cooking on the stove for the last eight years. In 1994 I was wondering if it would be possible to not only evolve the mind of my sculptures but also their bodies. After scribbling for a few days I realized that I did not need to think of my sculptures as three dimensional objects but instead as a two dimensional form that I could then fold into a three dimensional shape. With that in mind it became much easier to think of ways to have the sculptures self assemble.

The principle that I used is simple, imagine for example that you have a finite set of construction blocks that can only be connected to their sides, up and down being excluded. Now all blocks have their connecting base in common (all the same), that include a mechanism to lock blocks together and to unlock them when needed, a mechanism to provide motion so that the block can be bent so as to provide a means to fold them when connected, a means for the block to communicate with each other, and a means for the blocks to share and redistribute their energy supply. Once that is in place you get a few blocks, shake them a little to simulate the primordial soup, and there we go, some of the blocks start to link to others. Now at this stage in a sense we have mindless structures and I will use those as the seed to start the evolutionary process that will lead to fully interactive living sculptures. To do that I use a program that I developed here with my assistant engineers that I call "Gene-Genie" or GG for short. GG is a complex genetic program that lets me evolve "brain" and "body" structures using similar techniques to those that organic life uses. Things like random mutations, cross over (sex), and fitness functions to gear them towards a close to optimal solution for the particular environment of the sculpture.

The set of elementary blocks are the lemon shape (2 sides), triangle (3 sides), square (4 sides), pentagon (5 sides), hexagon (6 sides), septagon (7 sides), octagon (8 sides), heptagon (9 sides), decagon (10 sides) and the circle ( The circle represent 1 and infinite sides ). All of those shapes like I said before can connect to each other, however they each have a specific function. Each shape can impersonate different roles. For example a triangle could be an eye or an ear or a foot etc.. The higher the shape the more complex it's function can be. A little bit like in Flatland.

The fist thing that I will try to evolve is a sculpture that can move around collect blocks and assemble them so as to build the shape of their child which will be the result of the mother sculpture and the father sculpture. To do that however there is one more thing that is necessary which is the ability to differentiate the shapes and their positions in relationship to each other Once they are assembled, the parent sculpture seeds the child with its new genetic code which immediately starts to dictate the growth of its neural network and the way it should fold.
As it grows it starts to interact with its environment. The learning process goes into full gear for awhile then, when it reaches maturity it slows down. Most memories that survive this stage become permanent and part of the personality of the newborn sculpture. At this stage it can still learn more but it becomes harder as memories are competing for the limited memory space of the living sculpture.

Cello is a means to explore the possibilities of our origin and future. Cello may help us to get closer to a better understanding of life and to discover what other possible forms that life could take. Cello can help us break down some of our preconceptions about life... and maybe open our minds to a larger spectrum of possibilities.

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