dahyec-Looking Outwards-02

LookingOutwards-02

TITLE: Inspired by the Incomprehensible

To be honest, I am not a mathperson. But I was fascinated by the work of generative artist AlteredQualia. It is not clear who this individual is, but it is clear that AlteredQualia is a driven artist-programmer who explores the boundaries between art and computation. AlteredQualia’s Twitter <https://twitter.com/alteredq> account shows that s/he is currently active.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CQpIn2qUYAAjTms.jpg:large
“An example of one of AlteredQualia’s interests—the ‘Uncanny Valley’. More can be found here <http://fractalfantasy.net/#/4/uncanny_valley>.”

One of his/her projects, named “Evolve” <alteredqualia.com/visualization/evolve/>, particularly struck my interest. Though I don’t understand it fully, it uses code to pick random shapes to create a copy of an image. Though it takes a long time, the collection of random shapes begin to look like a copy of the original image.

http://alteredqualia.com/visualization/evolve/mona_9712.jpg
“After 7 days and 8,143,969 random shapes.”

What intrigues me is the very fact that I don’t truly understand what has been created behind the scenes of this transformation. Knowing that there are clear boundaries that I have never explored and may never even understand reminds me of the great possibilities that exist in the world of design. It excites me to understand how incomprehensibly vast the horizon is.