Live simulation refers to a form of expression in which a world, image, or soundscape is not presented as a fixed video or precomputed simulation, but is continuously updated in real time through computation. In the provided context, it appears as part of a lineage in media art alongside interactive environments, game modification, tactical intervention, and game engines from the 1970s onward.
A key feature of live simulation is that the work exists as an ongoing process rather than a finished object. Algorithms may be executed repeatedly in real time, with parameters and neighborhood settings determined at launch, so that visual and audio output is generated on the spot. Because a different parameter set can be chosen each time the program is run, the same code can produce different outcomes under different conditions. The audience therefore witnesses not only the result, but the unfolding of computation itself.
The context also describes works in which worlds are rendered “live,” or virtual sculptures exist only at the moment they are streamed to a device. In such cases, the work is defined by its responsiveness to data and its dependence on live processing. Another example frames server-side processing as a kind of “existential theater,” showing how live simulation can extend beyond visual display into the behavior of autonomous systems. Based on the available passages, live simulation is best understood as a real-time, generative mode of simulation central to interactive and computational art.