jwchou-LookingOutwards-06

Postmodern Modernist Generator
by Don Relyea

This project is a program that generates random modernist art by Don Relyea. It’s the third iteration, and with each iteration, Relyea incorporated new elements and features into his program.

I really admire Relyea’s thinking behind his programs. On his documentation page, he writes about how artists can truly never be replicated by programs, because they make spontaneous, intuitive decisions. However, he says that by logically breaking down choices an artist might make, a program can create a fairly good (and fast) approximation of art. Because he programs the generator to make decisions like an artist, Relyea’s artistic sensibilities are represented in the algorithms. However, It is not completely random, because the generator bases the art off of pre-selected color palates.

The last time the algorithm was updated seems to be 2010.