Art and Artificial Life

The VIDA Art and Artificial Life competition was created by the Fundación Telefónica in 1999 with the objective of promoting artistic creation based on new technologies. It has become one of the most prestigious artistic awards that merges art, science and technology. Throughout its three editions, VIDA has awarded artistic works developed with artificial life technologies and their associated disciplines like robotics, artificial intelligence, chaotic algorithms, computer viruses, biotechnology, virtual environments and sound sculptures. The event has received 1,478 projects from more than fifty countries. Curated by Karin Ohlenschläger, the current exhibition proposal clearly demonstrates the evolution of the artificial life concept as it pertains to art and the existence of several ways of inquiring and confronting the dialogue between art and new technologies. Some of the 23 works on display simulate the evolution and behaviors of living systems in digital supports and animate inert materials. In others, there is a decisive use of manipulation and transformation of living materials. With this, the artists make us participant of a reflection on the meaning of life. The exhibition also allows visitors to explore the coexistence between several natural and artificial species, between the physical and the virtual, between the organic and the technological. The exhibition presents works that confront ethical and symbolic values pertaining to the advancement of diverse scientific disciplines and that create connections between art, science and the social, political, economic and cultural conscience. The walk through the exhibition is articulated in five sections: The Code of Life, Robotics: Control and Dysfunction, Symbiotic Systems, Life is Communication, and Sensitive Membranes. For more information about the exhibition Art and Artificial Life 1999-2012, visit: http://espacio.fundaciontelefonica.com/arte-y-vida-artificial-vida-1999-2012/