Protobyte Phylogeny Lets Visitors Evolve Artificial Life
Ira Greenberg's installation is part of Scaling Intelligence, Gray Area's free show of 11 new AI commissions in San Francisco.
- When
- Opens Wed., Oct. 28, 2026, 7 to 10 p.m. On view through Sun., Nov. 1
- Where
- Gray Area, Mission District, San Francisco
- Cost
- Free
Scaling Intelligence, an exhibition of 11 new commissions by 13 artists and collectives, opens at Gray Area in San Francisco on Wednesday, October 28, 7 to 10 PM, and runs through Sunday, November 1. Admission is free. Among the works is Ira Greenberg's Protobyte Phylogeny, in which visitors take a specimen of one of Greenberg's protobytes, speculative digital lifeforms, and steer its evolution. The population running at the close of the show will be partly descended from visitors' choices. Gray Area's announcement invites visitors to become part of the ecosystem.
Protobyte Phylogeny: protoworld, a 60-second render Ira Greenberg posted in September. Watch it on Vimeo.
The show pairs Modal, a cloud compute company, with Gray Area's art and technology program. Artists received cash stipends, materials and cloud credits. The lineup includes Parag Mital, Kristina Pulejkova, Spencer Chang and Cezar Mocan, and the exhibition positions itself against the idea that AI inference means automation and slop.
Protobyte Phylogeny uses aesthetic selection, the method behind Richard Dawkins' 1986 biomorphs and most creature-raising games since. Killscreen covered Gray Area's Latvian bog performance in August.
Stills from protoworld, and the key art for Scaling Intelligence. Images: Ira Greenberg; Modal x Gray Area.
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