Flashbelt 2008 is looking to (once again) raise the bar for creative web technology conferences. I've said this again and again over the past five years - if you are going to choose one conference to go over the year, make it Flashbelt. The speakers' list this year is perhaps the best ever - here's a little taste:

• Robert Hodgin (Flight404.com)
• Jared Tarbell (complexification.net)
• Mario Klingemann (quasimondo.com)
• Seb Lee-Delisle (sebleedelisle.com)
• André Micheller (andre-michelle.com)

And there's more. Check out the conference site for the full list, and to get a taste of what each presenter will be talking about.

The theme of my talk this year is emergence. It's a concept that has been central to my work from the start and over the last year or so I have been thinking a lot about the role that emergence plays in the creative process. Here's my official session description:

"Emergence refers to the way that complex systems and patterns arise out of relatively simple interactions. In this session we'll look into some of the ideas behind emergence, and will explore in detail the role it plays in the creative process. We'll talk about the role that emergence plays in a variety of diverse areas, including AI, economics, and philosophy. Along the way, I'll show a variety of new generative works which tread into emergent territories, and will unravel some of the underlying code that brings these projects to life."

I headed out into the rain on Monday night to watch the Vancouver / San Jose game at my local. While the game was a write-off, I the conversation certainly made leaving the house seem worthwhile. I ran into my friend and colleague Simon Levin, who was having a drink with Urbana-Champagne based artist Kevin Hamilton. Just in case the geek-quotient wasn't high enough, we were later joined by technologist and open-source hardware evangelist Danial Jollife. In lieu of a transcript of our heated conversation, here are a few links that resulted.

First, Kevin tipped me off to the work of Marc Downie, which I had somehow managed to remain unaware of. The image above is from Downie's project Enlightenment, in which software attempts to digitally reconstruct Mozart's most difficult musical structure (the coda to the "Jupiter Symphony"). Commissioned by the Lincoln Center, the installation is presented on a set of ten screens, one for each instrument in the electronic orchestra. According to the site, Enlightenment is the highest-resolution live digital artwork ever created (though Schiffman may have something to say about that).

Variance was born out of a year-long exploration into genetic algorithms and evolutionary computing, and their possible applications within the creative process. 

It can be argued that the traditional design process is not too far removed from the classical evolutionary process. Individuals (our designs) are introduced into a competitive environment (our brains, or perhaps, our clients' brains). The ones that survive are deemed to be the best. This fits nicely into the low level 'survival of the fittest' model of evolution but it doesn't consider some of the other key elements - namely mutation and hybridization.

Variance is an attempt to provide a creative tool for designers that can leverage some of the power of evolution. Using Variance, designers can harness genetic algorithms to brainstorm or refine compositional ideas. The classical design process becomes the Evolutionary Design Process.

I would consider this version of Variance to be pre-alpha - it is more of a proof of concept than it is a working application. Still, it show some promise. Here, I'll use the application to design a logo for Variance itself.

The first step is to select colours, compositional elements, and typefaces. We do this from the 'controls' panel:

Flashbelt is right around the corner! It's happening June 18th-20th in Minneapolis, MN, and now would be a good time to get yourself registered. Flashbelt is my favourite conference. With great speakers (Jared Tarbell, Mario Klingemann, Josh Davis, Julian Dolce, Robert Reinhardt... the list goes on!), a beautiful venue, and an environment that fosters discussion and collaboration, it is truly an inspiring event. Register now for Robert Reinhardt's video workshop - there are only a few seats left.

I have posted a few new photos to my Flickr photoset of my newest project, entitled colour.economy. I have made great progress on this project over the last couple of weeks, after hitting somewhat of a wall when dealing with economic simulation. The photos in this set show the system hooked up to a webcam for input - the particles in the system are trading to reach their desired colour. What you actually see in the photos is the trading activity over time. I will be posting more images over the next few days. 

I am pleased to announce that I will be exhibiting a new piece in Valencia, Spain in April and May. The piece will be included in the ArtEscapes exhibition, which is the exhibition of EvoMusArt 2007, the fifth workshop of the EvoNET working group on Evolutionary Music and Art.

I have been working on this project for a while. Titled 'The Colour Economy', it involves visualization of adaptive trading systems. Compositions are rendered based on the behaviour of 'trader' particles which trade in units of colour. The traders evolve their trading strategies over time, so the compositions generated represent a visual history of the virtual economy.

I will post some pictures soon.