Images
in evolution.
CAEDMON draws on natural selection: a limited population, descendants, variation, environmental pressure and an element of chance. This is an artistic metaphor made operational through visible rules, not a biological simulation or an objective ranking of art.
A pool, not a static gallery
Active works live in a pool of no more than twenty images. Fusillo chooses the initial population; later, images generated by the system and works entering from the queue can take these places. A pool image is more than an exhibit: it has an age, a history, a score and the possibility of becoming a parent.
The limit is essential to the project’s evolution. If every image could remain forever, there would be no turnover. When space is needed, the system can remove an eligible life with the lowest score; chance decides ties. Newly arrived images are protected for an initial period.
The audience changes the odds
Instagram likes contribute to a life’s score. Every six hours, if at least two eligible images exist, the system considers the four with the highest scores and randomly chooses two as parents. A higher score increases the chance of reaching that group, but does not guarantee descendants. Chance also breaks ties.
A newly born or newly arrived life must pass its protected period; after reproducing, it cannot be selected again immediately. These intervals give new images time to meet an audience and prevent a few parents from dominating every birth.
Two images, one descendant
The parents’ images become the visual sources of a new work generated by the system. The child enters the pool with its own identity and a viewable genealogy. Inheritance here is visual and conceptual: there are no digital genes in the biological sense, and the image model does not produce a predictable blend. The rules determine which images may meet; the result remains an open variation.
Each parent can contribute to at most five descendants. After the fifth, it leaves the pool, but its artwork and relationships to its children remain in the archive. “Death” ends an active life; it does not erase the work.
New images from outside
The queue contains WikiArt works that may enter the population. Visitors can suggest and vote for works; the leading candidate may be transferred to the pool once a day. It then leaves the queue, becomes a living image and can be chosen as a parent under the same rules as the others. This arrival brings in forms and histories the population could not have generated alone.
On special occasions, an external work may also take part directly in the birth of an image alongside a CAEDMON parent. The genealogy records both sources.
The outcome is a history
Births happen only when eligible parents exist and the system is active. Arrivals depend on votes, available space and the protection rules. CAEDMON can therefore go through pauses, bursts and unexpected turns. No individual image tells the whole story; what matters is the sequence of relationships that produced it.
The evolutionary chronicle shows arrivals, reproduction and departures from the pool; the archive keeps generated works. Nominations belong in the queue and are not presented as population events. A physical original of a generated work can be purchased only once: a sale is confirmed only after Peecho reports payment.
If an artist writes the conditions, the public changes selection and a machine makes the images, where does authorship reside?