Ecosystemic methods for creative domains: Niche construction and boundary formation

This paper examines how models from ecology and evolutionary multi-agent systems can be used for creative applications. We outline a minimal, general specification for an ecosystem to be applied to the production of creative artefacts, based on spaces, materials, features and actions. Using this specification, we consider how basic evolutionary principles based on niche construction can be used to establish the emergence of heterogeneous structures in the simplest imaginable cases to which our framework applies. We investigate the minimal conditions for the formation and maintenance of boundaries, and then apply the results of our initial models to the design of a creative artwork, contrasting differences between niche-constructing and neutral evolutionary models.