Life: a live simulation.

The Game of Life, a cellular automaton, is implemented using human participants.

Each individual plays the role of a cell in an artificial organism. Their life spans are metered out by a drum beat, passing generations are marked by a cymbol crash.

With each generation, cells live or die based on how many living neighbors they have. Living cells stand up, dying cells sit down.

The game of Life is Turing complete; on a large enough scale, it can implement a computer that could run any program. This would take millions of people.

Life was commissioned for the 01SJ biennial.