Technical papers on eden

These papers give a detailed technical and procedural explanation of eden, from the perspectives of Artificial Life, interactive evolution and human-computer interaction.

McCormack, J. 2009,'On the Evolution of Sonic Ecosystems' in Adamatzky, Andrew and Komosinski, Maciej (eds), Artificial Life Models in Software (2nd ed.), Springer, Berlin.

McCormack, J. 2003, 'Evolving Sonic Ecosystems', Kybernetes, 32(1/2), pp. 184-202.

McCormack, J. 2002, 'Evolving for the Audience', International Journal of Design Computing, 4(Special Issue on Designing Virtual Worlds).

McCormack, J. 2001, 'Eden: An Evolutionary Sonic Ecosystem' in Kelemen, J. & P. Sosík (eds), Advances in Artificial Life, 6th European Conference, ECAL 2001, Springer, Prague, Czech Republic, pp. 133-142.

These papers are available for download in the research publications section.

Technical details and credits

eden is based on original software developed by Jon McCormack. The learning system uses a custom variant of Holland's Learning Classifier Systems (LCS). It runs on Apple Macintosh computers and uses digitiser systems, multi-channel video and sound. A fog machine emphasises the three-dimensional quality of the projected space. For detailed exhibition specifications and requirements please contact the artist.

Concept, programming and sound design:
Jon McCormack
Additional sounds: Alan Dorin
Video interaction software: Aidan Lane
Sensor design and construction: David Duke

Hardware / Software

Open CV Computer vision framework
Open GL and Open AL graphics and audio APIs
Boost C++ standard library enhancements
Apple Macintosh computer

- Earlier versions of eden used:
Infusion Systems I-Cube digitiser
Sharp Infrared sensors
Macromedia Director
Cycling 74's MAX/MSP