Infranet: A Geospatial Data-Driven Neuro-Evolutionary Artwork

“Infranet” is a generative artwork interweaving data visualization and sonification, artificial intelligence, and evolutionary algorithms in a population of artificial life creatures, thriving upon geospatial data of the infrastructure of a city as its sustenance and canvas. Each exhibit of Infranet utilizes public data available on the host city; including Gwangju, South Korea (2018), New York, USA (2019), and Vancouver, Canada (2019). This paper documents the motivations behind the work, its design and subsequent implementation in details. At its heart is the speculative proposition of the data of a city as a habitat for new forms of life. Our design in response utilizes neural networks at individual, as well as population-wide scales, along with horizontal gene transfer and contagion/entrainment as means for the living beings to open-endedly discover the variety in the data habitat.