The Synthetic Characters group works to create creatures whose behavior, form, and underlying architecture not only inform our understanding of the natural intelligence displayed by animals and ultimately ourselves, but that also touch a person interacting with them on a profound personal level. We are as concerned with the elegance, simplicity, and beauty of the underlying ideas as we are with observable forms and behaviors. Much as an artist does not simply record what is there, but rather shows what he or she sees, so too, we view the creatures that we create as personal statements that ideally celebrate their subject but that also challenge us to ask important questions about the nature and meaning of intelligence as well as our relationship to, and with, animals.