DrawCompileEvolve: Sparking interactive evolutionary art with human creations

This paper presents DrawCompileEvolve, a web-based drawing
tool which allows users to draw simple primitive shapes, group them
together or define patterns in their groupings (e.g. symmetry, repetition).
The user’s vector drawing is then compiled into an indirectly encoded
genetic representation, which can be evolved interactively, allowing the
user to change the image’s colors, patterns and ultimately transform
it. The human artist has direct control while drawing the initial seed
of an evolutionary run and indirect control while interactively evolving
it, thus making DrawCompileEvolve a mixed-initiative art tool. Early
results in this paper show the potential of DrawCompileEvolve to jumpstart
evolutionary art with meaningful drawings as well as the power
of the underlying genetic representation to transform the user’s initial
drawing into a different, yet potentially meaningful, artistic rendering.