Neutral Drift is a series of generations of images, evolving, mutating, arbitrarily, not in response to any pressure. Each image represents an organism with its own DNA, whose survival does not rely on its beauty, its recognizability to the human eye, or any outside preference. Just pure chance. This work focuses on the role neutral processes play in evolution.
Genetic drift, which I borrowed the name from, is the primary mechanism through which neutral evolution occurs. Its main characteristic is the random fluctuation in which particular traits persist or disappear, regardless of their fitness. This view challenges the idea that all evolutionary change is mainly directed by 'natural selection', though the two work in conjunction.
To explore this, I created a basic neural network as DNA (genotype): its shape, nodes, and functions defining each organism's traits — the colors, shapes, and patterns of the output image (phenotype). These images are pooled into a generation of 24, from which I randomly select only 3 to breed and survive to the next generation.
I sourced the randomness from historical climate data of the Earth — ice core data from Antarctica, tree ring data, coral records etc. These data have patterns of catastrophic events in the past, the kind that could drastically reduce populations and trigger genetic drift. So, I retained some of the pattern then use them as random inputs.
For 2,000 generations, images are selected, mated, evolved. The first result from this process is what I call a dream state. A 2,000-frame video of generations randomly shifting. As you look through them, you'll see traits emerge (new colors, shapes, patterns); some perish within a few seconds, some become dominant and last for hundreds of generations. In its final form, all the images from 2,000 generations are stitched together into a sphere. In its still form, you can trace from the genesis generation at the center, evolving, drifting to the final generation at the outermost.
Each work comes with its own profile page...
Owners can log in to replay all the generations, export hi-res images and videos...