The Emergence of ALife

An Interview with Kenneth E. Rinaldo
by PDQuick

Kenneth E. Rinaldo is a transdiciplinary artist living and working in San Francisco. He is currently on the Board of Directors of YLEM, an international group of artists using science and technology. His works have been shown in the U.S. and abroad at such shows as Image Du Future in Montreal, Canada, the V2 Dutch Electronic Arts Festival 1995, and SigGraph 1993 in Los Angeles and have been featured on television and magazines including Wired, The Discovery Channel's Know Zone and Cnet. His academic background includes Computer Science, Communications Research and Art. And he received his MFA in Conceptual Art from San Francisco State University.

I first met Ken Rinaldo in 1994 when I was co-curating an exhibition of interactive electronic and digital media. I was immediately intrigued by The Flock, an interactive A-life sculpture. Over the course of the exhibition, I was able to spend a lot of time with them. And what was most striking for me was the way they seemed to change from elegant flowing dancing beings to spasmodic twitching creatures that recoiled when approached.

For this issue of Switch, I spoke with Ken about his work with artificial life, his ideas about artist's and their role in scientific research and television amongst other things.