Karl Sims is a computer graphics artist who is best known for using particle systems and
artificial life in computer animation. In 1984, he received his B.S. for Life Sciences from
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts and following that
received his M.S. for computer graphics from the MIT Media lab. Sims begun to grow as a
computer graphics artist while working for Thinking Machines as an artist-in-residence, also for
Whitney Demos Production as a researcher, and is the co-founder for Optomystic. While
working for Optomystic he developed software for the Connection Machine 2 which was used in
animation for the water from drawings by Leonardo da Vinci that were used in Mark Whitney’s
film Excerpts from Leonardo’s Deluge. With all of these achievements under his belt he is
currently the head of GenArts. GenArts is a company from Cambridge MA that develops special
effects that are used by motion picture studios.
One of Sims techniques used in his computer graphics are called particle systems, this is
a technique that uses very small graphic objects to simulate certain effects such as a
“fuzzy” phenomena. (Ex: Fire photo to the right). The second technique commonly
used is artificial life which is used to imitate traditional biology by attempting to
recreate some of the aspects of biological phenomena by using computer models,
robotics, and biochemistry. (Ex: Photo to the left: Evolving virtual
creatures by Karl Sims). These are simply just a few of what Sims is known
for. Though Sims is also very knowledgeable in many other areas of
computer design, where he goes into depth about each technique in his
technical papers on each method. Along with the two types stated
previously, Sims has the knowledge of “evolving virtual Creatures”, “Evolving 3D Morphology
and Behavior by Competition”, “Interactive Evolution of Dynamical Systems”, and that is just to
name a few more.
Karl Sims in an artist with many different types of art that has been displayed throughout
his life, that is located in many different exhibits. Bio-inspired prints consists of Fractals,
Reaction-Diffusion, and Evolved Noise images to name a few. Also his “Interactive Exhibits”
that consists of, Galapagos, Genetic Images, and videos. As well as his computer animations that
has begun to grow throughout his career. Each of these different series of work has something
special about it. Sims spends time on each image to create something much more intricate that to
what meets the eye.
As I begun to study Karl Sims and the work that has made him famous, one particular
series that caught my eye much more than any of the others is the “Interactive Exhibits.” This
series captures the real life motion of the art work, and how
computer graphics can be extremely eye catching as well as
pleasing to the eye. One example in the “Interactive Exhibits”
that Sims created in 1993 is a series in the Genetic Images
which is personally the piece that caught my attention the
most. The idea behind this piece of work is something very
unique to anything else I have seen by many other artists. The basic explanation of this piece of
work is in which very basic still images are created into interactive images that transform.
Genetic Images is a media installation that Sims created in which visitors can interactively
"evolve" abstract still images. A supercomputer generates and displays 16 images on an arc of
screens in front of the visitors. They then stand on sensors in front of the images that catches
their attention and is pleasing to the
visitor according to is beauty. This then
selects which ones will survive and
reproduce to make the next generation
of images. During the entire time of the
exhibit the computer remembers which
images have been chosen and continues
to evolve the image as it is chosen. After even just five image selections there are millions of
paths that can be transformed. Even a person with very similar taste in image can have images
that are of complete opposites. There is also the option for the viewer to request that the
computer starts over, which then brings the images back to fairly simple images, where the
viewer can then watch as they begin to transform and see the transformation from the beginning
till however long they choose to interact. This has been exhibited at the Centre Georges
Pompidou, Paris, Ars Electronica, Linz, and the Interactive Media Festival, Los Angeles.
Karl Sims has many characteristics with his series of art that he has published over the
years. His transformations of simple still images into something much more complex, as well as
his manipulation of 3 dimensional images to create the brain to see something much different
than the original image are two main tactics used that create such a unique style of work. Sims
images use a style or method along the lines of a flow method, that create images to look abstract
as well as intricate to the human eye. This is the idea of the computer graphics, to make
something still look as though it is moving, or on some axis in motion. Throughout Sims career
technology has changed vastly, from simply the programming used with computers to even the
understanding of further manipulation. This giving the concept of computer graphics the upper
hand to most other arts because as time progresses it automatically enhances. This means that for
Karl Sims he has more opportunities to do new things with images and gives him more freedom
of creativity. In Sims Computer Animation series it is visible through the
years that many things have changed. In a 1987 image it starts off very
basic with simple line focus in his Locomotion Studies (shown on right).
Where are in a more recent piece of work that shares the same concepts as
the piece from 1987, this piece “Evolved Virtual Creatures” from 1994 has more
depth shown throughout the piece that gives the art more of an appealing
approach to the eye. (Image Shown on left). In just two simple pictures that are
not many years apart, the concept of Sims work has stayed the same and the
focus is still of the same, yet the detail in complexity of the image has increased
as his career continues.