Andy Lomas (UK)
Vase Forms

3D printed sculptures, dual stream HD animated video, 2017 & 2018

These sculptures are the latest in a series of explorations into how intricate, complex, and surprisingly natural seeming, organic forms can be created synthetically through computation of growth processes. Inspired by the work of Alan Turing, D'Arcy Thompson and Ernst Haeckel, the structures are grown using algorithms for morphogenesis at the level of individual cells. Rules specify forces between cells, how cells accumulate internal nutrients, how they share nutrients with their neighbours, and, when sufficient nutrient has been accumulated, divide to create new cells.

These works explore how synthetic growth systems can be influenced using constaints, biases, evolutionary algorithms and machine learning to steer them towards creating desired behaviour, whilst seeking to avoid overly directorial control that would loose the rich emergent variety of pattern and form that can come from emulating natural processes.

Andy Lomas

Andy Lomas is a computational artist, mathematician, Emmy award winning supervisor of computer generated effects, and lecturer in Creative Computing at Goldsmiths. He has exhibited internationally, including at the Pompidou Centre, V&A, Royal Society, Science Museum, SIGGRAPH, Japan Media Arts Festival, Ars Electronica Festival, Kinetica, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporaneo, Watermans, the Science Museum and the ZKM. His work is in the collections at the V&A, the Computer Arts Society and the D'Arcy Thompson Art Fund Collection. In 2014 his work Cellular Forms won The Lumen Prize Gold Award.
His production credits include Walking With Dinosaurs, Matrix: Revolutions, Matrix: Reloaded, Over the Hedge, The Tale of Despereaux, and Avatar. He received Emmys for his work on The Odyssey (1997) and Alice in Wonderland (1999).