Amoeba Morbus is the product of a personal research project on artificial life and data visualization. Using procedurally generated microbes, the project is an experiment about emergent group behaviors and simulated contagion.
Built from scratch, these digital microbes were designed and programmed to both represent and reimagine single-celled organisms existing in a new medium.
Featured in Machinic Unconscious – UCLA Design | Media Arts Exhibition 2017
An earlier iteration did not contain interactivity to human presence – agents were encouraged to change states according to their relative positions within the entire colony. When unusually isolated, amoebas would grow anxious or distressed, contagiously producing emergent "patterns."
Installed in the New Wight Gallery for the DMA Undergraduate Exhibition Machinic Unconscious, Amoeba Morbus responded to viewer presence and motion through integrated computer vision.
Many thanks to Noa Kaplan, who offered guidance and inspiration, and resources –
and to Dan Shiffman, who provided a wealth of knowledge with his book "The Nature of Code."