Ivan Dianov (Russian, b. 1988) is a generative artist and educator who writes code to explore complex systems such as evolution and organism development, working with multi-agent systems, cellular automata and generative grammars. He teaches data art at HSE University, co-founded the educational platform Setka, and founded Genclub, a Russian-speaking generative art community.
His 2023 fx(hash) project Zero-player game combines the look of 8-bit video games with a cellular automaton that increases in resolution and scrolls endlessly without repeating. He developed it after reading The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants and realizing that cellular automata are a special case of context-dependent L-systems. Dianov intentionally leaves bugs in his code, treating them as a symbol of the complexity and imperfection built into any system, including its maker.
