Computer Virus 2.0 (multimedia)

The multimedia artwork was first presented at Moving Image Gallery, New York, in March 2001 as part of the show "Transformers : Arcangel / Nechvatal".

Joseph Nechvatal’s 2001 Computer Virus Project 2.0 simulates a population of active viruses functioning as an analogy of a viral biological system. Among the different techniques used here are models that result from embodied artificial intelligence and the paradigm of genetic programming. 

The world is modeled as an image via a set of pixels. Every pixel's color is defined by R,G,B real number vectors which represent the red, green and blue components of every pixel's color. 

The image world has no edges. Every square on the edge of the image is adjacent to another on the opposite edge. A virus can move around the image and impact the image world as different colors actually correspond to resources used for survival by the viruses.