Sophie Chen – Looking Outwards – 02

Markos R. Kay – The Flow

The Flow visually imagines physical processes that we can’t see with our eyes. What initially drew me to this project is when I first saw the prints/screenshots, I didn’t expect it to be generated because of the high level of detail it had. When I watched the piece, I felt like I was watching something out of a documentary that was storyboarded and filmed/animated rather than generated. It didn’t match my expectations of what artwork generated through an algorithm would look like, which was very eye-opening. This piece is created through 3D computer simulations of particle systems, and the unpredicted motions generated are recorded by a virtual camera. Just like molecules, these pieces wind up into walls of code and end up layering and building complex 3D visuals. This is an extremely complex piece with a lot to digest, and I think the artist is especially successful in that the generative method he used to create this piece carries just as much weight (if not more) as the final product itself. If someone just saw the video and prints without knowing the process behind it, they’ve missed the point.

link: http://www.mrkism.com/flow/

artist’s website: http://www.mrkism.com/#about