LookingOutwards-02 – Page 5 – [OLD FALL 2018] 15-104 • Introduction to Computing for Creative Practice

Xiaoying Meng-Looking Outward-02

Algorithm Generated Japanese-Inspired Construction Joints

Wood joineries were very difficult to learn in history. The information was only accessible to people who study and master this traditional technique. The ways to explore and use this type of construction were very limited.

Aryan Shahabian, a researcher from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna used algorithms to record and demonstrate wood joineries. It allows more people to learn and use this information. This algorithm can also generate countless combinations of these joineries and create resultant free-form structures. It creates new possibilities in construction methods and expands the future of architecture. It is a step further in the field of parametric design.

I find this project very admiring because it uses modern technology to expand the possibility of traditional crafts. It is perhaps the new way of using ancient methods, so the traditions can live and grow.

Looking Outwards 02

http://www.ninakatchadourian.com/languagetranslation/talkingpopcorn.php

The generative artist that I am choosing to explore is Nina Katchadourian. She is a photographer, sculptor, and more, but the reason that I thought of her work for this blog post is because one of her pieces, entitled ‘Talking Popcorn’, uses the same logic as computer generated art. The piece is essentially a morse code reader installed inside of a popcorn machine, when batches of popcorn are popped, morse code reader translates strings of letters. In some of the popcorn batches there are actual english words that result in poems, or phrases and more. Nina has then memorialized the real popcorn that when popped, made words. Although this artist did not use code to make this artwork, I feel that she has utilized the concept of the randomness of an act like popping popcorn in a way that is similar to randomly generated code. I really admire how she took such a mundane act like popping popcorn and thought about how it could be made into randomly generated art.

Looking Outward 02

I found Erik Natzke’s NextFest Exhibit A video inspirational. I admire the crossover between digital and physical (paint) methods of creating art. He is inspired by the organic strokes of paint and incorporates that into his digital work and capturing the movement of line and strokes. It is exciting to see how many images he can make with this canvas and the music that goes along with the piece brings out the exciting movement even further. I suppose that the algorithm used in this piece is animation, statements we have started to use in class in the draw function, which also definitely uses color, transparency and shapes. Erik’s artistic sensibilities show through in his algorithms with the way he animates the strokes to first be out of the picture frame and then almost throw into the picture frame. Also the way he makes up the strokes in smaller transparent shapes adds to the organic aspect of the lines.

Kai Zhang-Looking Outwards-02

Abstracted, repeated image of human face.

Diffusion Choir

Client: Sosolimited

Architect: de Architedkten Cie

Year of Built: 2006

The Diffusion Choir consists with four hundred folding elements that celebrates the organic movement of an invisible flock of birds. Each of the element is able to open and close independently. There’s a consitant simulation of birds over the course of each hour. Smaller groups of birds coalesce into a single entity. The birds collaborated to perform a virtual choreographed gesture across the space.

The reason of the selection is because it’s close relationship with the parametric design workflow that I usually do in architectural practices. In the coding process, driving particles (aka the flock of birds in this project) are assigned as driving variables that initiate the change happening in the moving elements. They respond to the movement of the driving particles by calculating the distance and some other features of the “birds” by opening and closing. In such matrix, the large group had formed an elegant dance of waves that attrack the attention of the whole room, also evaporate a sense of pleasing tranquility.

http://sansumbrella.com/works/2016/diffusion-choir/

susiel-Looking Outwards-02

Formation from Kyuha Shim on Vimeo.

Formation is a project done by one of the CMU School of Design’s professor, Kyuha Shim. I came across this project during his studio last semester and was one of the reasons that helped me decide to take 104. Formation is a 2016 project commissioned by Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI) for the Special Project Exhibition during AGI conference in Seoul. It seems like there is a canvas with a grided background. Within this frame, there is a class for circles which contains the circle objects. These objects are what specify the random color, size and position for the circles. Perhaps there is an array system that informs how many circles are on the canvas. There could be a statement that indicates a change when a certain amount of time passes, with one change, it impacts the movement of the other circles. I appreciate this project not only for its visuals, but also because it is a generative system with a larger responsive system. It visually hows multitudinous transitions and scaling of visual/graphic elements.

Katherine Hua – LookingOutwards – 02

Parag K. Mital is an audiovisual computational artist and researcher. He creates his artwork through the building of artificial intelligence algorithms. I am captivated by the way Mital has explored deep learning, machine learning, film, eye-tracking, EEG, and fMRI recordings to generate his artistic productions. In his work “In the Style of Klee,” he utilizes these generative model processes and constructs an audiovisual perception of what looks like a video from the view from a car window as the car is driving through the streets. In this piece of work, it can be seen that it is inspired by the art style of Paul Klee. I admire how the Mital is able to bring what looks like a painting with Paul Klee’s style to life. He demonstrates the complexity yet simplicity of traditional fine art styles and brings it together with modern experimental generative art, giving his audience a unique film experience through traditional art and generative augmented computational science.

“In the Style of Klee” by Parag K. Mital, 2015

Jenny Hu — Looking Outwards 02

The Silk Pavillion is a pavilion designed and produced by the Mediated Matter lab at MIT’s Media Lab. I’m overall extremely inspired by the project because it represents Neri Oxman’s “material ecology” philosophy so clearly. What if the things we had today could be co-produced by understanding and putting material properties first?

The project is inspired by the way silkworms can produce their own cacoon out of a single thread of silk. The pavilion algorithm is generated by adopting similar behaviors to produce the panels of the pavilion out of thread, while the silkworms (which are acting completely autonomous) provide secondary structural support. It’s interesting because not only is the manufacturing algorithm based on natural logic, but the silk worms are in some ways autonomous generative beings too.

More information about the project can be found at the Mediated Matter Lab.

Anthony Ra – Looking Outwards – 02

“Unreleased Thoughts – neurons fire, images form”

Instead of a specific installation or project, I decided to look at a singular artist’s collection of works. From his biography, Sergio Albiac plays with the “visual intersection between generative computer code and traditional media. I originally ran across his work while on Pinterest and part of what his work that is especially intriguing is his implementation of two things that I have much interest in – portraits and learning art through code.

Using voice and facial recognition to generate a portrait

However, one of his works that stand out the most is “I am”. People sit in a visual portrait studio and, speaking to an audio application program interface, codes those words to create a portrait using those descriptions. It is the type of interactive artwork that does not involve the longevity of sitting through oil paintings or a couple nanoseconds of a flick of a film camera.

Part of what I really enjoy with his work is that it does not initially seem to have any generative-ness into it. Some of his work seems like oil paintings or watercolor, but upon further look, the ability to put computer programming and coding into a product that is convincingly realistic is something I definitely want to look into in the near future.

Erin Fuller – Looking Outwards 02

Screen Shot 2016-03-06 at 2.58.59 PM — People Viewing “KNBC”

Casey Reas is an American digital artist who uses programming to create artwork that is conceptual, procedural and minimal. The piece I am talking about “KNBC”, done in late 2015, is a continuously generated collage that distorts audio and video television signals. He used a tower located at his artist’s studio in Los Angeles to collect electromagnetic wave frequencies between 602-608 MHz. The signals are collected and used as variables and are output into a “stochastic” audiovisual stream, meaning the visuals have random probability distribution or pattern that might be able to be analyzed statistically not be precisely predicted.

I find this kind of work beautiful because there is a sense of logic underlying it. A lot of why people do not like modern art is because they think it is “random” or “meaningless”, and I appreciate how this new medium of generative art has something lying underneath it that the viewer may not see or understand, but it is there.

Screen Shot 2016-03-06 at 2.59.17 PM — “KNBC”, 2015

Helen Reynolds – Looking Outwards – 02

Nervous System: Floraform Sculptures (2014)

I think that these floraform pieces are really inspiring to me because they aim to instersect art, science, and technology. Artistic pieces inspired by the biomechanisms of growing plants and blooming flowers, these floraform sculptures are not only beautiful but also backed by research and almost feel like they’re alive. I hope to someday be able to intersect my varied interests in a fluid way, like Nervous System studio does here.

As for the algorithm itself, Nervous System states that creating these pieces was like “digital gardening”, where the “plants” are algorithms. I think it’s super cool that they were able to mimic organic growth with algorithms. I also think that the amount of thought that had to go into these pieces is crazy – lots of research had to have been done to understand exactly how plants grow, and even more had to go into effectively imitating it.

Check it out on Nervous System!