SPOTLIGHT
Scott Draves and his Electric Sheep
By Danielle McCloskey
Contributor
Before nearly every aspect of our
lives became electronic, software
artist Scott Draves released his
android flock of fractals into the
world. Electric Sheep, created in 1999,
is an open-source-coded screensaver
that operates both through
algorithmic, generative growth
and human interaction to produce
animations, called sheep. The name
comes from the title of a Phillip K.
Dick novel, Do Androids Dream of
Electric Sheep?, and is an apt one for a
program that runs when computers
are asleep. The dream, in this case,
evokes Darwin. The software merges
a set equation likened to gene
expression with societal pressure
from users to create a survival-ofthe-fittest battle of aesthetically
pleasi