Evolutionary Art

(What we did on our holidays)

David Broadhurst

Dan Costelloe

Lynne Jones

Pantelis Nasikas

Joanne Walker

Introduction

• Project aims– Develop some “nice” art– Use Genetic Algorithms to evolve art– Analyse the human-computer interface

Our Tools

• Graphical User Interface written in java

• Genetic Algorithm Engine

• Evolvable .gif images

Objectives

• Primary objective: “nice” art

• Secondary objective: modify GA engine

Art Requirements

• Needs to be simple yet attractive

• Evolvable – through parameters

• Written in simple java for easy integration

Art Used

Kaleidoscope applet– Simple shapes & bright colours– Use of reflections and symmetry add

interest– Animation gives extra dimension– Small simple java applet

(Demo)

Chromosome Design

• Existing code used integer array

• Our parameters:– Shape type (line / rectangle / circle / mix)– Colour of shapes (10 x 255 colour palette)– Background colour– Symmetry style (horizontal / vertical /

diagonal / mix)

Experimentation

• Considered mutation rate and crossover type

• Attempted to evolve a population of solutions without circles

• Recorded speed of convergence

Mutation

• Guassian mutation

• Probability varied between 0 and 1

• As rate increased more generations were required

• Convergence of other parameters increased as mutation rate decreased

Crossover

• Considered three types:– Single point– Random N point– Uniform

• Similar results obtained for each

Demo

Human Computer Interface

• Current layout is easy to use

• Can be time consuming after a few generations

• Tournament style selection may be an improvement

Conclusions

• Future work– Implement other evolutionary algorithms – Addition of visual effects on the animations– Revision of Human Machine Interface

Thanks to….

• Ben

• Gusz

• Bart (dude)

• Andrew