Conway’s game of life was one of the first times I was exposed to generative art. The rules of the game are simple: Cells are either alive or dead, any live cell with two or three live neighbors survives, any dead cell with three live neighbors becomes a live cell, and live cells die in the next generation. The program is relatively simple to implement, but I didn’t realize potential it had until I watched “epic conway’s game of life” on Oingo Boingo’s youtube channel.
Accompanied by arguably the most epic music created, Requiem for a Dream, Oingo Boingo showcases increasingly mind-blowing applications of the game of life. I admire it because it’s a testament to how seemingly simple programs can be turned into captivating art. My favorite design is when the program spells out “Golly” continuously. Art created from the game of life is painstaking and requires crazy amounts of precision.
The program Oingo Boingo uses can be found on http://golly.sourceforge.net. While John Horton Conway created the game of life, the authors of the code include Andrew Trevorrow, Tom Rokicki, and a couple other contributors. It’s not clear if Oingo Boingo created the showcased programs, but I believe most of the programs have their own creators and the video was a compilation of them. Gosper’s Glider is a staple of game of life projects and it appears often.
Since John Horton Conway’s death from COVID-19, Kate Vass Gallery has created an exhibition filled with works from four generative artists. Just by scanning through the online gallery, it’s clear that Conway’s impact can be felt through media arts and its evolution.
epic Conway’s game of life