This mash-up viral video is from Joseph Nechvatal's Computer Virus Project 2.0 - work that follows along the same lines as previous viral works by Nechvatal in 1992 where an unpredictable progressive virus operates on a degradation/transformation of an image. Using a C++ framework, Joseph Nechvatal and his programmer/collaborator Stephane Sikora have brought Nechvatal's early computer virus project into the realm of artificial life (A-Life) (i.e. into a synthetic system that exhibits behaviors characteristic of natural living systems). With Computer Virus Project 2.0, elements of artificial life have been introduced in that viruses are modeled to be autonomous agents living in/off the image. The project simulates a population of active viruses functioning as an analogy of a viral biological system. Here the host of the virus are the digital files on which the computer-robotic assisted paintings in this show are based. Among the different techniques used here are models that result from embodied artificial intelligence and the paradigm of genetic programming. Humans mashed: Marie-Claude Nechvatal with Donald Kuspit.
For more info see: http://www.eyewithwings.net/nechvatal/