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Kate Compton is a self-described “crafter of twitching generative bots.” Her work perfectly encapsulates concepts of generative art; it is bright, geometric, whimsical, and most importantly, random. A great example I found of her work is “Flowers,” a generative art piece that randomly spawns a sequence of graphically-generated flowers that sway in the wind. If you click “replant,” you’re able to regenerate the sequence of flowers, and the “evolve” button causes the regeneration to occur rapidly.
I thought that this was a fascinating example of generative art because you can almost see the principles in action. According to Free Code Camp, some of the core foundations of generative art is that:
- It’s random
- It’s based on algorithms
- It’s geometric in nature
The “replant” and “evolve” buttons make it clear that there’s an element of randomness to Compton’s work. Further, she’s very upfront in her bio that she works mainly with JavaScript (and very possibly, p5.js!). Thus, it’s likely that Compton wrote an algorithm in JavaScript and allowed it to reign freely over her art. Finally, the graphical style of the flowers is clearly geometric and shape-driven, and this works wonderfully with her work because of how flowy and limber the flowers feel in the wind.
It’s clear that Compton’s artistic capabilities are embedded in her algorithm because of how she utilizes color palettes and combinations as part of the “random” element. Every time the sequence of flowers evolves, so does the color palette, but Compton’s clear knowledge of color theory keeps the colors vivid, bright, and fun. My guess on how the algorithm functions is that with every mouseClick on “replant,” a random color is selected for each of the different flowers. Not only that, but a new random sequence of shapes is generated as well. Then, for the “evolve” buttons, the algorithm emulates a continuous sequence of mouseClicks to keep the colors and shapes evolving and changing. Kate doesn’t explain the secrets to her work, but it’s that element of randomness and surprise that keeps fans coming back for more.
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