Zabione is a multi-piece, episodic journey of love, death, and rebirth. This first episode, entitled “My Grave”, explores intimacy and boundaries in a primordial underworld. We begin our descent in an alien swamp, drawing closer and closer to a promise of beauty, to find that within it exists a prism of metamorphosis. Some human, some animal, some alien, these strange, fleeting creatures shed light on the intersectionality of personhood, the complexities of intimacy, and the collision of differing realms.
In addition to sourcing naturalistic reference imagery for this project, the strange creatures were designed with the aid of a neural network. Using ArtBreeder, a widely available web based AI program, the genes of many deep sea creatures were blended together to create these alien forms.
In addition to using AI to inspire reference imagery, it was also used to create particle systems that drove the swimming fish and rays. This particular type of particle system called “boids” is a variation of an artificial life program developed by Craig Reynolds in 1986, originally created to simulate the flocking of birds. The fluid swimming motions of the rays and fish themselves borrowed movement data from cloth physics, which also played a role in creating the dripping shapes in the swamp foliage and the tearing skin of the man’o war jellyfish.
Thanks for watching and expect more to come!
