Love Hulten’s EvoBoxx Plays the Game of Life

Designer Love Hulten has created some truly amazing pieces of retro-inspired technology, from arcade cabinets, to computers, to giant LEGO replicas. Love’s latest build is unlike any that has come before it. The EvoBoxx is a visual synthesizer that’s designed around the classic cellular simulation Game of Life.

The portable wooden box contains a small screen that displays a rudimentary, pixelated simulation of virtual lifeforms based on the classic 1970 computer program by JH Conway. This version of the program was created by Love’s former art school classmate happybits. The EvoBoxx has a monophonic speaker for delivering audio feedback, and provides a series of analog controls – four dials and a trackball – for influencing the world on screen.

You can check out a video of the system in action below, and when you’re done with that, you can play with a cool online version of the Game of Life simulator here.