Beauty: Explorations of Machine-Microbial Agencies

We discuss Beauty, a machine-microbial artwork, currently in development by Phylum, an experimental research collective specializing in cultural production informed by the intersections of science, technology and the arts (and of which the authors are founding members). The work is based upon an artificial intelligence agent that uses deep reinforcement learning to interact with and alter cultures of pattern-forming social bacteria in order to make them more aesthetically pleasing.