![[OLD FALL 2017] 15-104 • Introduction to Computing for Creative Practice](https://courses.ideate.cmu.edu/15-104/f2017/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/stop-banner.png)
Digital Death by Claudia Heart is an animated installation reflecting on the lifespan of computer art. As soon as such a work is created, it starts to become outdated and is threatened by bugs and glitches. In her animation, she uses a biological growth algorithm to imagine a tree growing and ungrowing at the same time. Throughout the animation, certain clumps of leaves on the tree twitch rapidly, evoking the idea of glitches. When the tree is fully grown, the trunk starts to disappear from the bottom, then the inner leaves, then finally all that’s left is a thin layer of outer light pink leaves in a sphere like a dandelion. Then they too vanish.
I like how simple the execution of this idea was. She simply used one growth algorithm but had time be both increasing and decreasing. I also think it represents the the artist’s concept very well. It’s a simple metaphor, but the contrast of representing a condition of tech art using an organic form is very striking.