Darwins Instruments - Jer Thorp

Jer Thorp’s Darwin’s Instruments is a result of research into Neural Networks and Genetic Algorithms, it allows you to evolve little multi-sound instruments and has the appeal of learning, a somewhat hermetic and tantalising system, through interaction. By selecting two sounds you create parents to produce offspring hybrids.

Jer has done a lot of interesting work in Flash, including some L-System biology for his Treegrowth project which itself has evolved, through code sharing, into a project for the V&A by Philip 0’Dwyer called Trans_vision.Also worth a visit is his Neural.network.soundtoy:

‘By clicking and holding the mouse, you can create independent neural networks with random connection weights between nodes. When nodes reach activation threshold they play a sound.’