![[OLD SEMESTER] 15-104 • Introduction to Computing for Creative Practice](https://courses.ideate.cmu.edu/15-104/f2022/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/stop-banner.png)
aDiatomea is a complex artificial life system produced by Markos R. Kay, a multidisciplinary artist focused on exploring biology and conducting a-life research through screen-based media & generative art. Fully generated with a mathematical equation capable of reproducing organic lifeforms, Kay’s microscopic organisms – also known as Diatoms – are injected with granular sound to act as their external force of life as they interact with the environment as well as one another. At its very core, aDiatomea is an evolutionary algorithm made up of particles placed randomly within 3 dimensions, each with a confining parameter that limits how far they can spread from their initial number. Driven by sound and randomness, the diatoms grow, evolve, and interact with the conditions of the environment, enabling the process that we know as artificial life.
Aside from being an (r)evolutionary artist, Markos Kay is a digital scientist and “genetic engineer.” His works are often beyond even the scope of both modern art and science. As a digital artist mesmerized by the integration of generative visual media with other fields of research, I am beyond envious of both Kay’s abilities as a programmer as well as his imagination as an artist.
https://www.mrkism.com/adiatomea.html
Markos R. Kay, aDiatomea, 2008