Primordial Soup
project ongoing_an introduction to my work in progress
I have been slowly laboring away at the intensive research involved in my project Primordial Soup. It all began in 2005 when I traveled to the Galapagos Islands to make a documentary on Evolution. I was already interested in themes of evolution, natural history and the origins of species. Speaking directly with scientists in the Galapagos about their ideas of creation and life further planted the seed for my interest.
So How do we get from pond scum to human civilization.....hmmmm??
After several years of reading scientific texts, I have tried to map out some facts and develop a project that reflects my discoveries.
What most of the scientists could agree upon at the conference in 2005 - "The World Summit on Evolution" - was that evolution was not a theory, as much as gravity could be called a theory. Evolution just is. It is actually happening, and changes in species and life are happening continually all around us.
So I decided to create my own little world, a testing bed to make new species and create life. The world is made of tiny animations, and these animations can be changed and modified by people and weather.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ok....so this is the project::
IDEAS: the process of evolution from single celled microbes into increasingly complex organisms and how this development over time is controlled by exterior force such as climate change and species interaction.
EXECUTION: Create an interactive video where by the viewer controls the evolution of my drawing creations through a user interface.
TECHNOLOGY: Flash 8, ActionScript, Pure Data, sensors and microcontrollers
INFLUENCES:
-Charles Darwin “Origin of Species”
-Richard Dawkins “The Blind Watchmaker”
-John Conway’s “Game of Life”
-Richard Leakey’s “Sixth Extinction”
-Renaissance zoology
-The culture of categorization
