Field Notes / Film 01
A natural history of an imagined world
A naturalist’s introduction to the organisms, selection, and inheritance within Protobyte Phylogeny.
About the film
A body.
A life. A lineage.
Within Protobyte Phylogeny, generative code gives inherited traits a visible form. Authored ecological conditions and AI assessments participate in selection; energy, reproduction, and variation shape the population over time.
This film follows those relationships through a naturalist’s presentation, illustrated with actual ProtoInk engravings and field diagrams.
The creature shown is a development specimen. Its 43 recorded genome values appear alongside selected traits. A labeled variation study changes appendage length and returns to the recorded form; the ecological, energy, and ancestry diagrams illustrate concepts rather than replaying its individual history.
Read & watch
Transcript
Protobyte Phylogeny
Protobyte Phylogeny. An evolving artwork by Ira Greenberg. A natural history of an imagined world.
A genome becomes a body
This specimen carries forty-three recorded values. Together, they shape its body and movement. Here, girth influences body thickness; appendage length sets their scale; and symmetry arranges them sixfold around the body.
A variation in length
In this variation study, one value changes. The appendages shorten, then return to their recorded length.
A world of distinct niches
Different niches favour different forms: long bare limbs at the bottom, ornamental fans at the reef, streamlined bodies in open water.
The conditions of selection
Fitness combines authored preferences for inherited traits with an artificial intelligence model's assessment of a rendered specimen against a description of its niche.
The course of a life
This assessment affects energy income. Age increases energy costs. When an organism's energy runs out, its life ends.
The turning of the seasons
As seasons turn, the favoured zone changes. Energy income changes with it, while the organism's genes and stored fitness score remain the same.
Inheritance and variation
Given enough energy, available space, and another participant, reproduction becomes possible. Offspring inherit traits from both parents, with mutation introducing variation.
A history of descent
We follow these relationships across generations. Together, they form a history of descent: the phylogeny in the exhibition's title.
The world becomes the work
The artistic medium includes the conditions themselves: what the world rewards, what continues, and what the record preserves when a life ends.
Encounter an evolving world
Protobyte Phylogeny. Presented through Modal and Gray Area, in San Francisco this October. Discover the work at protobytes dot art.
Credits & source
From the studio.
- Artwork & creative direction
- Ira Greenberg
- Specimen rendering
- ProtoInk
- Narration
- Despina (generated voice)
- Exhibition
- Modal × Gray Area
Radiolarius recursiva
Development record retained September 15, 2026. The original source genome is preserved. During the labeled variation study, one parameter changes temporarily in the renderer; the saved specimen record is unchanged.
Specimen source
Genome identifier
38b92c52683a5b064747568fabcb783d19ffb743e8c537821a2188257003839dThis source record did not supply an individual life identifier.
Download specimen record ↓Related reading
The conditions
of a creature.
On selection, authored ecologies, and the models that participate in them.
Read the essay ↗Encounter the work
Protobyte Phylogeny
Modal × Gray Area
October 28–November 1, 2026
San Francisco