Shift-life interactive art: mixed-reality artificial ecosystem simulation

This article presents a detailed design, development and implementation of a Mixed Reality Art-Science collaboration project which was exhibited during Darwin’s bicentenary exhibition at Shrewsbury, England. As an artist-led project the concerns of the artist were paramount, and this article present...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ch'ng, Eugene, Harrison, Dew, Moore, Samantha
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/48858/
_version_ 1848797864537358336
author Ch'ng, Eugene
Harrison, Dew
Moore, Samantha
author_facet Ch'ng, Eugene
Harrison, Dew
Moore, Samantha
author_sort Ch'ng, Eugene
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description This article presents a detailed design, development and implementation of a Mixed Reality Art-Science collaboration project which was exhibited during Darwin’s bicentenary exhibition at Shrewsbury, England. As an artist-led project the concerns of the artist were paramount, and this article presents Shift-Life as part of an on-going exploration into the parallels between the non-linear human thinking process and computation using semantic association to link items into ideas, and ideas into holistic concepts. Our art explores perceptions and states of mind as we move our attention between the simulated world of the computer and the real-world we inhabit, which means that any viewer engagement is participatory rather than passive. From a Mixed Reality point of view, the lead author intends to explore the convergence of the physical and virtual, therefore the formalization of the Mixed Reality system, focusing on the integration of artificial life, ecology, physical sensors and participant interaction through an interface of physical props. It is common for digital media artists to allow viewers to activate a work either through a computer screen via direct keyboard or mouse manipulation, or through immersive means to activate their work, for “Shift-Life” the artist was concerned with a direct “relational” approach where viewers would intuitively engage with the installation’s everyday objects, and with each other, to fully experience the piece. The Mixed Reality system is mediated via physical environmental sensors, which affect the virtual environment and autonomous agents, which in turn reacts and is expressed as virtual pixels projected onto a physical surface. The tangible hands-on interface proved to be instinctive, attractive and informative on many levels, delivering a good example of collaboration between the Arts and Science.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T20:10:39Z
format Article
id nottingham-48858
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
language English
last_indexed 2025-11-14T20:10:39Z
publishDate 2018
publisher Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-488582018-03-17T13:33:36Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/48858/ Shift-life interactive art: mixed-reality artificial ecosystem simulation Ch'ng, Eugene Harrison, Dew Moore, Samantha This article presents a detailed design, development and implementation of a Mixed Reality Art-Science collaboration project which was exhibited during Darwin’s bicentenary exhibition at Shrewsbury, England. As an artist-led project the concerns of the artist were paramount, and this article presents Shift-Life as part of an on-going exploration into the parallels between the non-linear human thinking process and computation using semantic association to link items into ideas, and ideas into holistic concepts. Our art explores perceptions and states of mind as we move our attention between the simulated world of the computer and the real-world we inhabit, which means that any viewer engagement is participatory rather than passive. From a Mixed Reality point of view, the lead author intends to explore the convergence of the physical and virtual, therefore the formalization of the Mixed Reality system, focusing on the integration of artificial life, ecology, physical sensors and participant interaction through an interface of physical props. It is common for digital media artists to allow viewers to activate a work either through a computer screen via direct keyboard or mouse manipulation, or through immersive means to activate their work, for “Shift-Life” the artist was concerned with a direct “relational” approach where viewers would intuitively engage with the installation’s everyday objects, and with each other, to fully experience the piece. The Mixed Reality system is mediated via physical environmental sensors, which affect the virtual environment and autonomous agents, which in turn reacts and is expressed as virtual pixels projected onto a physical surface. The tangible hands-on interface proved to be instinctive, attractive and informative on many levels, delivering a good example of collaboration between the Arts and Science. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press 2018-03-01 Article NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/48858/3/shift-life.pdf Ch'ng, Eugene, Harrison, Dew and Moore, Samantha (2018) Shift-life interactive art: mixed-reality artificial ecosystem simulation. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 26 (2). pp. 157-181. ISSN 1531-3263 mixed reality artificial life agent-based modeling art participatory sensors https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/PRES_a_00291 doi:10.1162/PRES_a_00291 doi:10.1162/PRES_a_00291
spellingShingle mixed reality
artificial life
agent-based modeling
art
participatory
sensors
Ch'ng, Eugene
Harrison, Dew
Moore, Samantha
Shift-life interactive art: mixed-reality artificial ecosystem simulation
title Shift-life interactive art: mixed-reality artificial ecosystem simulation
title_full Shift-life interactive art: mixed-reality artificial ecosystem simulation
title_fullStr Shift-life interactive art: mixed-reality artificial ecosystem simulation
title_full_unstemmed Shift-life interactive art: mixed-reality artificial ecosystem simulation
title_short Shift-life interactive art: mixed-reality artificial ecosystem simulation
title_sort shift-life interactive art: mixed-reality artificial ecosystem simulation
topic mixed reality
artificial life
agent-based modeling
art
participatory
sensors
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/48858/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/48858/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/48858/