The Emergence Project: The Bush Soul

Based on a paper presented at "Artists in Industry and the Academy," a special section of the 92nd Annual Conference of the College Art Association, Seattle, WA, 18-21 February 2004.

Media art grew out of experiments by artists and scientists attempting to create new forms of artistic expression that exploited, and sometimes questioned, media technology. It is by definition a multidisciplinary process that requires innovation not only in the ways that art and technology are merged but also in the techniques for execution and presentation.

Contrary to the accepted doctrine that the artistic idea must always precede the technology, I often focus first on technology as a source of inspiration for a work of art. Like a sculptor who is inspired by a piece of marble, I find that the first creative spark usually comes after considering the potential of an emerging technology, particularly a technology that strongly impacts popular culture.

The Bush Soul, a series of interactive art installations, began this way. After returning to the University of California at Los Angeles in 1996, following a 2-year foray working in the video-game industry, I wanted to explore the artistic implications of video-game technology with a particular focus on artificial life and the simulation of behavior in a virtual environment. Intel Corporation provided me with a grant to do just that.

The Bush Soul (Fig. 1 and Color Plate E No. 2) explores the role of human presence in a world of artificial life. The title is based on a West African belief that a person has more than one soul and that there is a type of soul, called the "bush soul," that dwells within a wild animal of the bush.

Fig. 1.

Rebecca Allen, The Bush Soul #3, Energy Mountain.

© Rebecca Allen

In this work a person's soul, represented as a sphere of pulsing energy, enters a virtual world (a virtual bush) that is alive and responsive. The world's inhabitants are brought to life through programs that define their behaviors and desires. A character can be endowed with "feelings" toward any object in the world. These feelings drive a character's movements and affect its reactions. Complex social environments can emerge from the interaction of simple behaviors.

As one explores the virtual environment, one may inhabit the bodies of certain artificial life forms. A haptic, force-feedback joystick provides both navigation and tactile sensations. It serves as a connection between the physical body and the virtual soul.

In order to create this piece, it was necessary first to build the underlying framework to support a "living" virtual environment. This was accomplished with an interdisciplinary team of UCLA students from computer science, design and music. Each student contributed a type of specialized knowledge, but all had experience in multiple disciplines.

Together we developed Emergence, a real-time 3D software system that supports an active, responsive, networked, virtual world. It includes a sophisticated behavior scripting language used to define the desires and behaviors of artificial life. In addition, Mark Mothersbaugh, the multitalented composer from the group Devo, created the overall music score.

In an artwork such as this, the art-making process is similar to that of a filmmaker. As the artist who originates the idea, I am responsible for the creative vision and the direction of the collaborative process. Through experiments with a creative team, we take the idea to areas that are foreign yet seemingly fertile.

My work is an exploration of the liminal zone where art and technology reside. The work is not designed in advance but rather emerges from the process of experimentation. Also, because the work calls for interaction, it continues to evolve through the process of audience participation.