Gallery: Videos: Do Electric Sheep Dream of Dancing Fractals?

  • Electric Kaleidoscope Sheep
    01

    electric-kaleidoscope-sheep

    These fractal animations, known as Electric Sheep, were created by a screensaver program that harnesses the power of many computers to create abstract art. The [Electric Sheep website]( http://electricsheep.org/) describes the distributed-computing project: > Electric Sheep is a collaborative abstract artwork founded by Scott Draves. It's run by thousands of people all over the world, and can be installed on any ordinary PC or Mac. When these computers "sleep," the Electric Sheep comes on and the computers communicate with each other by the internet to share the work of creating morphing abstract animations known as "sheep." The result is a collective "android dream," an homage to Philip K. Dick's novel *Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep*. > > Anyone watching one of these computers may vote for their favorite animations using the keyboard. The more popular sheep live longer and reproduce according to a genetic algorithm with mutation and cross-over. Hence the flock evolves to please its global audience. You can also design your own sheep and submit them to the gene pool. The more people who run the Electric Sheep program, the better the animations get. See some of the results in the video gallery above. If you like them, [download the Electric Sheep software](http://community.electricsheep.org/download) and run it on Windows, Mac OSX or Linux. __Above:__ Electric 'Kaleidoscope' Sheep ----------------------------- These Electric Sheep create a kaleidoscope pattern with bursts of color.
  • Electric Sunburst Sheep
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    Electric 'Sunburst' Sheep ------------------------- The patterns here react in bursts over time. They are mostly circular, but watch as the corkscrew shapes alter the "dream."
  • Electric Downward Spiral Sheep
    03

    electric-downward-spiral-sheep

    Electric 'Downward Spiral' Sheep -------------------------------- In this "dream," the spiral pattern plus added noise give it the look of tumbling downward through a funneled spiral.
  • Electric Marbles Sheep
    04

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    Electric 'Marbles' Sheep ------------------------ These patterns include fiery spirals, pink nautiluses and rolling marbles.
  • Electric Nautilus Sheep
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    Electric 'Nautilus' Sheep ------------------------- This sheep uses circular patterns reminiscent of the ocean nautilus.
  • Electric Dreams Sheep
    06

    electric-dreams-sheep

    Electric 'Dreams' Sheep ----------------------- This dream is a bit more erratic. Here you can see many variations of patterns used to influence the outcome of the dream.
  • Electric Entropy Sheep
    07

    electric-entropy-sheep

    Electric 'Entropy' Sheep ------------------------ This is another very active dream with spirals, waves, circles and cogs.
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