IlliGAL Blogging

Dawkin's Blind Watchmaker (1986) program and the Faceprints system developed at New Mexico by Caldwell(1991) are two early examples of interactive genetic algorithms. For example, in Faceprints, the system replaces the role of a human sketch artist in evolving the faces of criminal suspects from witness recollection. Since those early efforts, an interesting spin was taking on such algorithms, the so-called genetic art. Genetic algorithms creating art based on the guidance of human evaluators. You can find an example of genetic art here.

However, what began with as genetic art also leaped into the realm of architecture. I found the application of genetic algorithms in the architecture realm fascinating. Requiring greats dosis of creativity and innovation, architects have found on genetic algorithms and idea pump that help them explore new concepts, objects, spaces, and lights---to mention a few. Manuel De Landa presented some interesting meditations about the impact of population based methods on the creative grounds of architecture. Leandro Madrazo has also been working on web-based learning environments to support collaborative learning. Even without realizing it, his work has a clear flavor of a real application of human-based genetic algorithms to the development of architectural concepts.