ProtoTanks — A world to return to
Narration: Despina · American English female presentation, generated voice. ProtoTanks companion film.

[00:00:00.000] ProtoTanks. A living world, on the wall. Artificial-life artworks by Ira Greenberg.

[00:00:09.100] Each organism begins in code. A numerical genome shapes its proportions, appendages, surfaces, and movement. Here, a retained rehearsal specimen is rendered as a living engraving.

[00:00:26.700] In the running world, these bodies become a population. Organisms gain and spend energy, reproduce, age, and die.

[00:00:38.733] Offspring inherit traits from their parents, with mutation introducing variation. Across generations, the world accumulates a history of forms and relationships.

[00:00:53.133] The installation brings that evolving world into a room. A display, a dedicated computer, and the artwork are commissioned together for the setting.

[00:01:06.933] A founding organism gives the commission a recorded beginning. Its artist-issued certificate connects the specimen to the acquisition. The world’s ledger records births, deaths, and ancestry.

[00:01:23.500] The rhythm is one of returning and noticing: a different movement, an unfamiliar body, a population that has changed while the system runs.

[00:01:37.467] The work extends more than two decades of Ira Greenberg’s Protobyte practice: drawing, mathematics, and computation brought together through organic form.

[00:01:51.200] Each commission begins with a private demonstration and a conversation about the space. Installation, operation, and care are defined in the agreed proposal.

[00:02:04.200] ProtoTanks. A world to return to. Explore the work at the ProtoTanks website.