tx th nxthng . ivan belousov
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project : "non zero sum game"

author: Ivan Belousov

interactive interface

technique: programming, neural network training, 3D modeling, industrial metal processing, sound design

tags: machine learning, emergent behaviour, artificial life, post-digital, enlightened doomsaying

exhibitions: "Empathy Machines" is an exhibition at The State Russian Museum that explores the boundaries of human emotions, biology and machine intelligence, the intersection of the natural and the mechanical in art

thesis supervisor: Helena Nikonole

curator: Olga Vad

scientific consultant: Sergey Kostyrkо

The name of the project “non zero sum game” is a concept from game theory that describes a model of interaction between participants, where everyone either wins or loses simultaneously.


The project has two goals technical and artistic:


1. to develop a reinforcement learning environment in which AI agents interact with The Game of Life cellular automata universe;


2. to create an art object that metaphorically represents the complex interaction between society, nature, and technology. The art object is developed within a designed digital environment that supports the conceptual metaphor.


The basis of the digital system is a cellular automata (CA), a model designed by mathematicians in the middle of the 20th century to simulate various self—regulating dynamic processes, from biological and chemical to social and economic.


CA is a grid of cells, each of which can be in a "living" (1) or "dead" (0) state. The state of the cells changes simultaneously based on fixed rules.

запись цифровой системы
To show how the designed digital environment works it was decided to create a non zero sum game interaction between AI agents. This highlights the idea of philosopher Jean Pierre Dupuy that competition has become obsolete as an engine of progress in the world.

The field of the CA consists of round-shaped resource cells divided into two clusters, indicated in blue and white colour. AI cells, square-shaped agents controlled by a neural network, move among them. AI agents of one color consume resources of another color and spend energy on movement. AI agents can also generate resources by participating in the logic of the CA with resource cells of their own color. This is how their relationship is modeled.

The art object consists of an interactive digital system displayed on a screen and a metal controller with two rows of potentiometers through which the visitor can interact with the developed environment.

Guide:

  • using the controller, visitors can influence the state of the digital system;
  • the lower row of potentiometers allows to explore the CA field by moving along it;
  • the upper row of potentiometers regulates the amount and speed of generated resources of both clusters, which occurs during the movement through the CA field.
презентация арт объекта
Thus, the “non zero sum game” project metaphorically models cooperation and mutually beneficial relationships between different participants in difficult and unpredictable conditions with emergent behaviour.

The shape of the matal case on which the monitor and controller are mounted was generated using a developed digital system. And the shape of the controller was inspired by the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 GPU card on which the neural network was trained in the project. Also, a lot of work has been done to develop interactive generative sound.

Using this developed interface that form the metaphor it is interesting to think about how natural, social and technological systems interact with each other and how such interaction can lead to global disasters and to sustainable development.