Category: LookingOutwards-02

LIA – Waves (2016)

When I read the description for “Waves,” I thought, ok, I’m going to watch a video of some sine waves. When I pressed play, I was blown away. The video completely transformed my emotional state, and then some. I was immediately lulled into a calm, the sort that is stereotypically ascribed to spending time by a body of water. I could even hear the sounds of an ocean. I found myself raising the volume on my computer to try to hear the sound better–only to realize that the video had no sound, and the sound was in my head, brought up from my memory by the video itself.

On the project’s site (linked at the top of the post), LIA doesn’t go into too many details about the algorithms by which she made “Waves,” but the project description explains that the algorithms allow for changes in rhythm and scale while keeping the direction constant. It is all randomly determined, making for endlessly new patterns. She calls it a “motion painting.” It reminds me of the exercises we did in class today, with the circle moving back and forth at different speeds–but it’d be as if the circle were allowed to leave the canvas and endlessly new, randomly-generated circles appeared directly behind it, forever.

In the About section on her website, LIA states that her minimalist work combines traditional drawing and painting with new digital and algorithmic aesthetics. The bio continues: “She focuses on the translation of certain experienced principles into abstract forms, movements and colours in order to allow the viewer to explore the same on a subconscious level.” I can attest to her success at that from my experience of “Waves.”

As highlighted on the project site, “Waves,” was displayed as part of a concert in 2017. I think “Waves” begs to be combined with music, as my response, which was also aural, did.

This image is taken from a series of drawings and medias made for a showcase. Daniel Cardoso Llach focused on the history of computational methods and technologies between the 1949 and 1976 and his other works in the showcase aims to track the evolution of new design representation, stimulation or other data processing software. His work sheds light into how the advancement of technology has changed how designers, engineers, and many across different fields to work, think and communicate their work. The image shown is generated by a custom software system made by Professor Llach to reconstructs Steven A. Coons’ mathematical technique for parametric surfaces.

The showcase will be open from September 22 to November 12 at the Miller Gallery in CMU.

image reference: http://grahamfoundation.org/grantees/5577-designing the-computational-image-imagining-computational-design

The Wombats – Techno Fan

Roman Verostko is an American artist, who uses code and machinery to create meticulous flowing forms on paper. Verostko has produced works like Cyberflower VII (2000)

using a pen attached on a point plotter powered by algorithms coded on the computer. What drew me (pun intended) to Verostko’s work is the effort he took to convert digital products into the physical ultimately creating an organic form constructed of many delicate, yet precise lines all through machinery. He first learned how to create form through algorithms with FORTRAN in 1970. He now uses elementary BASIC with DMPL to drive a Houston Instruments plotter (with inkwell pen attached) hooked up to a PC in order to translate the digital into physical. Verostko initially turned to art of the early 20^th century for inspiration. He is specifically drawn to the “pure form” that artists such as Suprematist Kazimir Malevich and De Stijl artist Piet Mondrian were able to capture in their paintings. It personally makes sense to me that someone interested in algorithms to create artwork would be attracted to the simple and mathematical approach painters like Malevich and Mondrian had with their paintings. This video below demonstrates the precision and care Verostko places on his work, similar to his inspirations.