EvoTrees, 2026

by Jonathan McCabe

PNG format image files (16 bits per colour channel), 50000x50000 pixels

To Jonathan McCabe, the EvoTrees are feathery colourful luminous floating creatures made from mathematical transformations and geometry.

The EvoTrees are sets of coloured points described by a recursive branching algorithm. They are closely related to the work of Aristid Lindenmayer, “L-Systems”, where he constructed grammars to describe the branching patterns of plants. They are also related to Michael Barnsley’s “Iterated Function Systems”.

The EvoTrees in this series resulted from a process of recombination and selection over a series of “generations”, following the “genetic algorithm” popularised by John Holland.

They show pattern emerging from random sets of geometric transformations via “canalization” (see Stuart Kauffman’s work on stability versus chaos in random Boolean network models of cells).

Exhibited at EMERGENCE, Kate Vass Galerie, Zürich, Switzerland, 2026.