AN EXPERIMENT IN INTERACTIVE GENETIC FORM
a genetically engineered garden in virtual reality

date: 2003

These self-monitoring virtual organisms modify their behaviour to consume the resources of the computer on which they are hosted. The environment of this fantacy garden is an infinite ground plane on which plants grow, decay, and eventually die. It can be viewed at the scale of the plant on the ground, the macroscopic scale of the entire field, or the microscopic scale of the genes in individual cells.

It is designed for a VR CAVE environment, of stereoscopic projections on the walls and floor of a three metre room. The choice is easily made to navigate at ground level or fly above, and manipulate the plants by dragging them with the control (mouse or glove), or zooming in closely and manipulating the genetic code. Any changes thus made affect any new growth and the form of any new offspring.