Collaboration between Alan Dorin, Christa Sommerer, Laurent Mignonneau and the students of the Institute for Advanced Media Art & Sciences (IAMAS), Ogaki, Gifu, Japan*.

IKI-IKI Phone is an interactive game designed for use on the Japanese I-Mode mobile telephones. The concept is to build an environment for virtual pets on the network of I-mode phones. Rather than have a stock-standard set of virtual pets, the creatures are bred by phone users with a genetic algorithm driven by aesthetic selection.

The I-mode software is still under development, however the IKI-IKI Hoikuen (Kindergarten) prototype is complete. In this software users may selectively breed creatures or leave them to play and select their own mates in a breeding frenzy.

Also see MENISCUS which was based on the design of IKI-IKI Hoikuen.