Karl Sims

Sims received a B.S. in Life Sciences from MIT in 1984, and a M.S. in computer graphics from the MIT Media Lab in 1987. After receiving his master's degree, Sims worked on special effects software at Whitney/Demos Productions and then was a co-founder of Optomystic.{{Cite web |date=2017-08-20 |title=Karl Sims - ACM SIGGRAPH HISTORY ARCHIVES |url=https://history.siggraph.org/person/karl-sims/ |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=history.siggraph.org |language=en-US}} At Optomystic in 1989, Sims developed software for the Connection Machine 2 (CM-2) that animated the water from drawings of a deluge by Leonardo da Vinci, used in Mark Whitney's film Excerpts from Leonardo's Deluge.{{Cite web |date=2022-12-20 |title="Excerpts from Leonardo's Deluge" by Sims - ACM SIGGRAPH HISTORY ARCHIVES |url=https://history.siggraph.org/animation-video-pod/excerpts-from-leonardos-deluge-by-optomystic/ |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=history.siggraph.org |language=en-US}}

Sims was later artist-in-residence from 1990 to 1996 at the supercomputer manufacturer and artificial intelligence company Thinking Machines.{{Cite web |title=Karl Sims {{!}} CSAIL Alliances |url=https://cap.csail.mit.edu/engage/spotlights/karl-sims |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=cap.csail.mit.edu |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Karl Sims |url=https://www.macfound.org/fellows/class-of-1998/karl-sims |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=www.macfound.org |language=en}} In 1996, Sims founded and became CEO of GenArts, a Cambridge, Massachusetts company that developed special effects plugins used in film and video production.{{Cite web |date=2008-12-23 |title=GenArts' Katherine Hays - the First 100 Days - fxguide |url=https://www.fxguide.com/fxfeatured/GenArts_Katherine_Hays_-_the_First_100_Days/ |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=fxguide |language=en-US}} In 2008 he moved to a role on the board of directors when Insight Partners acquired a majority stake in the company.

Sims' animations Particle Dreams and Panspermia used the CM-2 to animate and render various complex phenomena via particle systems. Panspermia was also used as the video for Pantera's 1994 cover of Black Sabbath's "Planet Caravan".

File:Galapagos-icc-2.jpg

Sims wrote landmark papers on virtual creatures and artificial evolution for computer art. His virtual creatures used an artificial neural network to process input from virtual sensors and act on virtual muscles between cuboid 'limbs'.{{Cite journal |last1=Lehman |first1=Joel |last2=Clune |first2=Jeff |last3=Misevic |first3=Dusan |last4=Adami |first4=Christoph |last5=Altenberg |first5=Lee |last6=Beaulieu |first6=Julie |last7=Bentley |first7=Peter J. |last8=Bernard |first8=Samuel |last9=Beslon |first9=Guillaume |last10=Bryson |first10=David M. |last11=Cheney |first11=Nick |date=2020-05-01 |title=The Surprising Creativity of Digital Evolution: A Collection of Anecdotes from the Evolutionary Computation and Artificial Life Research Communities |journal=Artificial Life |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=274–306 |doi=10.1162/artl_a_00319 |pmid=32271631 |s2cid=4519185 |issn=1064-5462|doi-access=free |arxiv=1803.03453 }} The creatures were evolved to display multiple modes of water and land based movements such as swimming like a sea snake or fish, jumping and tumbling (walking was not achieved). The creatures were also co-evolved in different species to compete for possession of a virtual cube, displaying the red queen effect. The cover of Chris Langton's 1995 book Artificial Life: An Overview uses an image of the creatures generated by Sims.{{Cite book |url=https://direct.mit.edu/books/book/3941/Artificial-LifeAn-Overview |title=Artificial Life: An Overview |date=1995-07-06 |publisher=The MIT Press |doi=10.7551/mitpress/1427.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-262-27792-1 |language=en |editor-last1=Langton |editor-first1=Christopher G. }}

In 1997, Sims created the interactive installation Galápagos for the NTT InterCommunication Center in Tokyo.{{Cite web |title=ICC {{!}} "Galápagos" - Karl SIMS (1997) |url=https://www.ntticc.or.jp/en/archive/works/galapagos/ |access-date=2024-06-14 |website=NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC] |language=en}} In this installation, viewers help evolve 3D animated creatures by selecting which ones will be allowed to live and produce new, mutated offspring.

His paper "Artificial Evolution for Computer Graphics" described the application of genetic algorithms to generate abstract 2D images from complex mathematical formulae, evolved under the guidance of a human. He used this method to create the video Primordial Dance – which, according to one published study with supplementary video, calls to mind the history of early 20th century abstraction among its several evolutionary themes{{cite journal |author=Smith, Glenn W.|date=16 January 2020|title=On the origins of a 13-second segment of Primordial Dance: a brief Karl Sims interview with commentary|journal=Digital Creativity|volume=31|pages=22–28|doi=10.1080/14626268.2020.1714664|doi-access=free}}{{cite web |url=https://vimeo.com/272773412|author=Sims, Karl|title=An excerpt from "Primordial Dance" by Karl Sims|publisher=Creative Machines|accessdate=28 January 2020}} – as well as parts of Liquid Selves. Genetic Images was an interactive installation also based on this method; it was exhibited at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, 1993, as well as Ars Electronica and the Los Angeles Interactive Media Festival.

Sims received an Emmy Award in 2019 for outstanding achievement in engineering development.{{Cite web |title=- Winners |url=https://www.emmys.com/awards/engineering-emmys/winners |access-date=2022-06-26 |website=Television Academy |language=en}} In 1998, he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. He has won two Golden Nicas at Prix Ars Electronica, in 1991 and in 1992.{{Cite web |title=Golden Nicas |url=https://ars.electronica.art/center/en/golden-nicas/ |access-date=2023-02-26 |website=Ars Electronica Center |language=en-US |archive-date=2023-02-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230226175530/https://ars.electronica.art/center/en/golden-nicas/ |url-status=dead }} He has also received honors from Imagina, the National Computer Graphics Association, the Berlin Video Festival, NICOGRAPH, Images du Futur, and other festivals.

He is married to MIT professor Pattie Maes.{{cite news |url= http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20122115,00.html |title= Pattie Maes – Most Beautiful |website= People.com |date= May 12, 1997|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110209033121/https://people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20122115,00.html|archivedate=2011-02-09}}

• Flow exhibit demonstration, 2020 ({{YouTube|2w5vf0WkGYg}})
• Seven Experiments in Procedural Animation, 2018 ({{YouTube|AVoV9xV_LU4}})
• Evolved Virtual Creatures, 1994 ({{YouTube|RZtZia4ZkX8}})
• Liquid Selves, 1992 ({{YouTube|qsnSRRVwkrA}})
• Primordial Dance, 1991 ({{YouTube|tT1CIQIfses}})
• Panspermia, 1990 ({{YouTube|Vxg8qgXVHLU}}) (Incorporated into Beyond the Mind's Eye, 1992) )
• Particle Dreams, 1988 ({{YouTube|5QEp-oPaQto}})
• Excerpts from Leonardo's Deluge, 1989 – software developer

• {{cite journal|author=Karl Sims|title=Particle Animation and Rendering Using Data Parallel Computation|journal=SIGGRAPH '90 Proceedings|date=August 1990|pages=405–413}}
• {{cite journal|author=Karl Sims|title=Choreographed Image Flow|journal= Journal of Visualization and Computer Animation|volume=3|year=1992|pages=31–43|doi=10.1002/vis.4340030106}}
• {{cite journal|author=Karl Sims|title=Artificial Evolution for Computer Graphics|journal=SIGGRAPH '91 Proceedings|date=July 1991|pages=319–328}}
• {{cite journal|author=Karl Sims|title=Evolving Virtual Creatures|journal=SIGGRAPH '94 Proceedings|date=July 1994|pages=15–22}}
• {{cite journal|author=Karl Sims|title=Evolving 3D Morphology and Behavior by Competition|journal=Artificial Life IV Proceedings|editor=Brooks & Maes|publisher=MIT Press|year=1994|pages=28–39}}
• {{cite journal|author=Karl Sims|title=Interactive Evolution of Dynamical Systems|journal=Proceedings of the First European Conference on Artificial Life|publisher=MIT Press|year=1992|pages=171–178}}
• {{cite journal|author=Karl Sims|title=Interactive Evolution of Equations for Procedural Models|journal=The Visual Computer|publisher=Springer-Verlag|year=1993|pages=466–476}}
• {{cite journal|author=Lehman, Clune, Misevic,..Sims,..|title=The Surprising Creativity of Digital Evolution|journal=Artificial Life |volume=26|publisher=MIT Press|year=2020|issue=2 |pages=274–306|doi=10.1162/artl_a_00319 |pmid=32271631 |s2cid=4519185 |doi-access=free|arxiv=1803.03453}}

• Artificial life
• Evolved virtual creatures
• Evolutionary robotics

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.karlsims.com/ Karl Sims home page]
• [http://www.karlsims.com/evolved-virtual-creatures.html Virtual creatures pictures & movies]
• [http://iasl.uni-muenchen.de/links/GCA-IV.3e.html#Evolution Thomas Dreher: History of Computer Art] Chap. IV.3.2: Evolutionary Art of William Latham and Karl Sims

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Category:American digital artists

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Category:1962 births