The Vivaria Project employs the metaphor of the Zoo to examine artificial life forms, creativity and the relationships between humans, animals and machines. Vivarium is being funded by the Arts Council of England for its research and development phase to initiate a live networked display of artificial life-forms in European Zoos. It builds upon current research interests and the artistic practice of many artists associated with CAiiA-STAR, as well as a current on-line research project EZITT (European Zoos Information Technology Training Project), funded by the Leonardo da Vinci EU Programme.
Vivarium seeks to contemporise the C19th century notion of the Zoo and productively employs the Zoo as metaphor to understand some of the complexities and conditions under which animals, humans and machines are classified and differentiated.
http://www.vivaria.net/