On Computational Ecosystems in Media Arts

This research is an exploration of issues surrounding the artistic production of computational ecosystems. A computational ecosystem is a system of agents designed to emulate, on computer, biological systems in which autonomous individuals are organized in a hierarchical food chain and interact by trading units of energy. This thesis maps out the field of computational ecosystems and examines their modes of production and functions. The central claim is that the narratives normally associated with these systems and their functioning are two complementary but separate entities. Considering these separately, the author argues, the computational ecosystem is an abstract generative engine for heterogeneity, spontaneity and even novelty. It is contended that the set of methods of production developed by exploratory artists using these artifacts might be instrumentalized as generative methods for the animation of general-purpose nonplayer characters in virtual worlds.

Rui Filipe Antunes, still image from Where Is Lourenço Marques?, an ethnographic generative virtual world, animated with an autonomous population, 2013.

(© Rui Antunes)