Artificial Nature: Research and Development Haru (Hyunkyung) Ji, Graham Wakefield Media Arts & Technology, University of California Santa Barbara, U.S.A E-mail:jiharu@mat.ucsb.edu , wakefield@mat.ucsb.edu Abstract Artificial Nature is a trans-disciplinary multimodal interactive art installation and a research subject investigating the application of bio-inspired system theories towards engaging aesthetic world-making. Our motivation is to develop a deeper understanding of emergence and creativity as a form of art, study and play, by taking inspiration from nature’s creativity while recognizing the potential of natural creation beyond the known and the physical. In this paper we trace the progression of Artificial Nature from original inspirations through diverse prototypes to elaborate immersive installations. 1. Introduction Artificial Nature is a research project actualized in the production of engaging interactive ecosystems as art installations. Our aim is to provoke extended experiences of discovery as a form of art, study and play, to recapture some of the child-like wonder at the complexity and beauty of nature. Our method is to engender emergent virtual worlds by recognizing the potential of natural mechanisms of creation beyond the physical. Our first intentions to construct Artificial Nature began in late 2007, as a convergence of interests regarding the aesthetics of computational generative art in general, and immersive, interactive works in particular, along with the potential of bio-inspired thought, from complex adaptive systems, artificial life [10], and related philosophy [3]. We were especially inspired by the notion of becoming - processes of continuation rather than completion, locally constrained contingency rather than global direction - at the heart of evolving complexity and creativity (see [4], but also [16]). The challenge is to construct a sufficiently rich, creative artificial world with a lifelike nature amenable to computation. Our strategy to absorb this challenge emphasizes the embodiment of processes: every element in the world should be continuously active an engaging in localized, systemic relations, and a genealogical account should be given as to how every structure and function emerges from the initial elements (and similarly how things must decay). We hope that what follows are qualities emerging through a progressive differentiation of the virtual into the variously stratified, rather than a simple assembly of distinct types, and thus the permeation of creative potential throughout the entire system at all levels and scales. Though we have not yet attained this goal to the level desired, Artificial Nature has made good progress: seeing considerable development from basic prototypes so far, and with numerous exhibitions. The composition, aesthetics, system and interaction design of Artificial Nature have been described in detail previously [1, 6, 7, 8, 18]. In this paper we trace the prior progression from prototypes to elaborate immersive installations. 2. Prototypes and progressions Ecosystemic theory is ideally placed to express the creative potential of a systems-oriented understanding of nature for machinic embodiment, however the strength of a particular ecosystemic model derives very much from the richness of the environment that supports it [12].