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IN SILICO V1.0: DISCOVERY-BASED COLLABORATIONin silico v1.0 is a collaboration composed of eight artists and scientists representing bioinformatics, computer science, engineering, molecular biology, performance, proteomics and new media. We are motivated by several goals: to create works that contribute simultaneously to the realms of science and art while retaining discipline-specific rigor; to investigate the nature of interdisciplinary collaboration; and to explore how artistic practice and aesthetic experience can nurture scientific discovery. Through our collaboration we are developing Ecce Homology, an artistic exploration of the intersection of comparative genomics and immersive experience.The sequencing of the human genome is perhaps the crowning achievement of the reductionist ethos of science in the last century. In contrast, genomic biology is moving toward discovery-based and predictive frameworks for scientific practice [1]. Unprecedented amounts of genomic data are being generated daily. To capitalize on this wealth of data, new tools must be developed. The need to build knowledge from data, or to find patterns within vast datasets, is driving the development and application of interdisciplinary and alternative approaches [2]. Ecce Homology is one such approach. The work fuses multi-user interaction with a compelling immersive aesthetic experience of genomic data sets and a depiction of a complex bioinformatics algorithm. It is also intended to engage the social and scientific importance of genomic biology and bioinformatics while aiming to foster awareness of the use of tools for making meaning and knowledge in science. Ecce Homology's novel calligraphic gene visualization incorporates intricate, non-alphabet forms for scientific visualization inspired by the traditions of Chinese and Sanskrit calligraphy, pictographic writing systems and the relationship between structure and function in biological molecules. In creating Ecce Homology we established a shared language that incorporates elements of each collaborator's area of expertise. These elements from distinct disciplines were continually reinterpreted and elaborated. The result is hybrid process and product.

Drafting Poems: Inverted Potentialities challenges preconceived notions of intelligence, creativity, and authorship. In Drafting Poems, an artificially intelligent poet reacts to user stimuli creating meaningful verse. As users sketch on the surface of a glass drafting-table, the system gathers statistics on how the users are drawing. These statistics inform a probabilistic text generation system that creates original poetry. While this work builds on a rich tradition of algorithmic poetry, its focus on the creation of meaning represents a fundamentally different expressive goal and hence Drafting Poems signifies a new movement, the AI Aesthetic.