LookingOutwards-06

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Randomness

Title: Symmetrical
Artist: David Kim

This video was created by a friend who is currently majoring in motion graphics at OTIS College of Art and Design in California. Although the artist himself did not program or randomize the project, through specific parameters and plugins, he created fairly complex “random” sequences that made shapes and lines fly around.

Although I do not know if this video was created through random variables or algorithms, I do understand that it was created with definite random factors such as the directions of the motions of the shapes.

I find it interesting how such complex and random motions could be created through parameters, rather than actual handmade shapes. Controlled randomness, albeit very different from actual randomness, can be applied so easily to artworks such as this to form creations based on the artists’ creativity.

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Artist Jason Salavon made these digital works of art that appear to depict blurred out women. The women depicted are actually an amalgamation of all of the Playboy centerfolds from each decade. He creates these images by inputting all of the data from the centerfolds into an algorithm that averages all of the images. You could look at the data from the centerfolds as random information. His algorithm organizes this “random” data to create the image. It is particularly interesting to see these works next to each other because, despite the blurriness of the image, you can see a pattern of how the centerfold girls have become whiter and thinner over the years. This creative method of data visualization makes a statement about how people’s concept of attractiveness and beauty have changed over the last couple decades.

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http://iobound.com/pareidoloop/

Phil McCarthy created the project Pareidoloop, which combines a facial recognition algorithm with a random polygon generator algorithm to produce a somewhat recognizable face. The programs works by generating random sized, coloured and shaped polygons that are then layered on top of each other until the facial recognition algorithm recognizes a face. All other variables, except the random polygon generator, can be set by the user, such as size of image, fitness or how likely the “face” matches an actual face and number of generations. The maximum fitness level is 35, where the lower the number, the faster the image renders but the rendered face may not be recognizable. Number of generations is how many times the code runs until it stops to find another face. McCarthy was inspired by the idea of pareidolia, which is a when the mind responds to an image by perceiving a pattern within random data. An example of that would be objects in cloud formations or Pixar’s The Blue Umbrella short film.

Different possibilities to the pareidoloop code

There are certain user controlled variables, yet each time the code runs, the generated image is very different. There are so many different possibilities to this code. What I like about this project is how a face is a very defined image, but even when abstracted into simple polygons, from a distance, each face looks different from each other.

Random Sound, Evolving, Mixing to Compose

http://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2017/august/butterfly-sounds.html
This piece is an evolving sound composition created by a class I was in Junior year. The Phipps hosts a butterfly bloom every year, and my class wrote generative music compositions within the space. The class split into about 10 teams, and wrote a sound piece using random event triggers to play an ambient melody.

In this project, randomness played a crucial role for the experience within the space. One lesson we learned about in the class is that predicable/repetitive beats can impose undesired movement within a space. We used the randomness to unify each teams individual compositions. Because there was no specific beat to the songs, a pleasant tone was set in the garden space.

Another concept we learned about randomness is evolution. If a framework for a musical or artistic piece is designed to allow for chance, the experience is always different. A viewer can explore the space on their own time, without fear of missing out.

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Holger Lippmann: Noise Scape 4

Holger Lippmann’s Noise Scape 4 series contain generative art pieces that compute randomness in color arrays, shapes, and noise to create beautiful landscape paintings. Although the technicality of these pieces are considered basic, Lippmann says there was a large amount of fine tuning in order to get the result he wanted. Lippmann lets the code run and then generate an output of 100 images, then chooses his favorites from the set.

The result of his art is visually stunning. He creates a lot of random generative art like this one, but this one caught my eye because of its beautiful flowing shapes and calm colors. When viewed from a distance, they really do look like landscapes of color, but zoomed in close, I can see each shape and how it changes.

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Marina Savova is an artist that focuses on abstract painting. Originally from Bulgaria, she studied painting at the University of Veliko Turnovo. After graduating, she has had 16 individual exhibitions around the world from Serbia to Germany to her home country in Bulgaria. She has also won three awards for her painting and now many of her works are located in galleries and owned by private collectors all over the globe.

At first glance, her art may seem like it is just a random combination of paint and splatters – which it is to a certain extent. Her paintings fall in the realm of the abstract as random shapes and lines are scattered on a canvas. This however, is for a certain effect. With each random shape and line, comes a specific chosen color as all of her paintings feature a clearly defined color scheme. This is utilized to show emotion with color and allow the emphasization of the pigment of the shapes and lines, rather than featuring an object or shape.

Abstract paintings are unique in their ability to have a different effect on each individual that views it. Instead of simply depicting an image or a snapshot in time, they are meant to be interpreted many ways – which is the beauty of randomness. Marina Savova painted each shape in such a manner that it looks effortlessly done as though she the act of painting was quite spontaneous. Her artistic sensibilities are mainly seen in her choice of color as that provides the main mood of each piece. I really admire her ability to paint so abstractly and randomly, although still achieving emotion through randomness.

http://retroavangarda.com/gallery-of-friends/albums/Miriana_Savova/?img=843

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Tyler Hobbs is a generative artist from Austin, Texas. Tyler writes a custom computer program specially designed to create an abstract image for each work. His work focuses on the interplay of randomness and order, and draws inspiration from paint, vegetation, and naturally occurring patterns. For Continuity series begins by generating semi-random quadrilaterals. Intersections between quadrilaterals become negative space. The positive space builds up in iterative layers. Proximity to an attractor point controls the transparency, brightness, and sharpness of the positive space. The generative aspect (pseudo randomness) is interesting to see as Hobbs allows the shapes to become harmonious as they relate arbitrarily, yet in a fully controlled way. Because chance provides a good foundation to the structure of these works, they can generate an entire series of images. Each work could be completely different from previous instances, providing an element of freshness and surprise.

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With computer generated arts becoming more prevalent, artists haave leaned on photo editing and codes to create new artworks. Another new tool is algorithms – where artists borrow the computer’s ability to generate ‘random’ number plugs to create different shapes, forms, colors in different areas of the digital canvas. Mark Wilson is an artist that very much utilizes the random generation from the computer to create similar, yet different artworks everytime. There is an issue of question if these artworks are truly random as Wilson is virtually telling the computer to pick a number out of the options. However, one thing is for sure, Wilson’s artworks are an interesting showcase of modern art technology. More of his works can be found here.

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“Letter Field” by Judson Rosebush

This piece is called “Letter Field” by Judson Rosebush. I really appreciate this piece because it uses a software to generate the art. Meanwhile, I feel like it follows communication design guidelines. I’m assuming that this piece had to be generated several times in order for one to look like an actual piece of designed work. It works by through a database of the Souvenir font; random number generation, a statistical basis to determine letter size, color, and position; and a hidden line algorithm all combine to calculate this scan line raster image. I believe that the letters are randomly generated and also with the size and color.

For this week’s looking out post, I decided to use Piet Mondrian’s piece: Composition No. 10 Pier and Ocean, created in 1915.

The inspiration behind this piece was the rhythms created by the waves in the ocean hitting and splashing against pier. However, he uses a randomness to illustrate the rhythm and feel of the pier and ocean. From first impression, one would view Mondrian’s piece as a very random, abstract piece. In reality, the “randomness” behind his work is a very calculated randomness.

Mondrian considered art as a reflection of the spirituality of nature. By creating artwork that was stripped down to the very basics, he hopes to show the energy and balance of the forces in nature. He used simple vertical and horizontal shapes to represent the positive and negative universal energies. Every line and space in his works is carefully placed to reflect the energies of nature and recreate the balance in a visual form.

http://www.piet-mondrian.org/pier-and-ocean.jsp