Category: LookingOutwards-02

Jamie Park – Looking Outwards – 02

Marcin Ignac’s Tatelet, 2014, a 3D printed bracelet based on the customer’s selection of art works

I am inspired by Marcin Ignac’s Tatelt, a generative artifact that uses data from Tate Modern museum. The 3D printable bracelet is very unique to the user, as the person can choose the artwork that wants to be part of the bracelet. Based on the selection, an algorithm using Javascript that has been designed to analyze the complexity and color palettes of the artworks orders the 3D printer to print a bracelet with a specific pattern.

The fact that the artist decided to create an artifact to represent the data really impresses me. Likewise, this project is very similar to datavis (data visualization) in design. I like this artwork in particular because it is a different way of approaching data and visualizing it, as the work combines technology and creativity to create something special. I wish I would be able to combine technology into my design career and be able to create something meaningful.

You can see more of his works here: http://marcinignac.com/projects/

SammieKim-LookingOutwards-02

“Nervous System” is a generative design studio that combines scientific research, computer graphics, digital fabrication to create unique products and artworks. Gaining inspiration from diverse biological systems, Nervous System adapts and translates these natural processes into algorithms, which are encoded and generated by the computer. The “Data Driven Midsoles” was a collaborative project with New Balance for functional 3D printed midsoles for running shoes. What I admire about this project is how the design flexibly adapts to the runner’s performance, where the data is recorded through a grid of sensors underfoot. For this, they had a myriad of concepts and prototypes that they experimented with. One idea was utilizing foam structures from nature (such as wood and bone), in which the low density and highly porous qualities of the cells brought forth a strong and lightweight material. Its flexibility would allow the foams to geometrically adapt to different forces depending on the runner. I think it was clever for the artist to constantly search for systems that are present in our environment, and then logically apply them into usable products for daily life.

Data-customized midsoles with New Balance
Midsoles created through Selective Laser Sintering (Nervous System)
3D Foam structure composed of cells (Nervous System)

Nadia Susanto – Looking Outwards – 02

Nervous System is a generative design studio who is already making a big name for themselves. They have worked with New Balance since 2015, changing the way that running shoes can be customizable as they created a generative midsole customizer to demonstrate how consumers can design their running shoes through biometric data, running preferences, and direct design manipulation. New Balance’s new TripleCell 3D-printing platform made it possible to make data-customized running shoes a reality.

Recently, they collaborated with New Balance to make the 990S shoes with 3D-printed heel parts. What really inspired me about Nervous System’s work with New Balance is the seemingly simple use of 3D printing. I am also amazed at the fact that running shoes have turned into more than just a shoe, but where art can be displayed. As seen above the 3D-printed heel adds an extravagant feature to the shoe, making it more appealing.

YouieCho-LookingOutwards-02

Manfred Mohr’s Algorithmic Modulations, 2019

I looked at the work “Algorithmic Modulations,” 2019, by Manfred Mohr. He is a first generation artist of generative art, and his earliest works date back to the 1960s. For me, this work is inspiring primarily because it involves skills that I personally cannot work with well, but would like to explore. Using computer to generate art that is constantly responding to changing variables inspires me.The algorithm includes diagonal paths that go through a 12-D hypercube and are placed in different angular positions, which are rotated in 12-D and projected into 2-D. Transparent color bands and black lines are created according to the paths, and the algorithm randomly changes colors and overlays as well. There are also music-related horizontal lines. I think it was very sensible of the artist to create a very complex algorithm in which many variables affect each other, as opposed to having simpler relationships. This makes the work very unique and dynamic.

A moment from Manfred Mohr’s Algorithmic Modulations , 2019

Taisei Manheim – Looking Outward – 02

The generative project that I chose was Taxi, Taxi which is a project created in 2016 by Robert Hodgin, in collaboration with Jonathan Kim and with the help of Ryan Bartley.  Taxi, Taxi is a digital installation in the Samsung 837, the Samsung Experience Center in New York City. The project uses NYC Open Data taxi data in order to create a real time simulation of the different routes that taxi cab drivers take.  It was created with the Cinder C++ coding framework, a framework that Robert Hodgin was the co-creator for. They also used Open Street Map to create the 3D model of New York City.  Robert Hodgin and the other people that worked with him had to have some design sensibilities because even though they got all the taxi data from a New York City database, it was up to them to display the information in a clear and aesthetic manner.

Joanne Chui – Looking Outwards 02

Crows are Chased and the Chasing Crows are Destined to be Chased as well, Transcending Space – By teamLab

This digital piece is generated through interaction with visitors in the space. The visuals are played along with music, and are rendered in real time, not pre-recorded or set on a loop. Visitors are able to walk around in the space and are completely surrounded by the projections. The projection consists of crows flying around the space and chasing each other, and if they crash either into each other or into a visitor, they explode into a floral pattern. Because of its generative nature, the digital installation is always changing and never producing the same results.
I was really interested in this because usually we view digital art as flat, but this installation really immerses and surrounds users into the art piece. It became a digital architecture in which users interacted with the generative artwork through movement in a space.
A suggestion I have would be to possibly experiment more with the surfaces of the rooms/the architecture of the space. It would have been interesting to see a curved wall for example.

Ellan Suder-LookingOutwards-02

Alfred Hoehn’s Drawing Machine

Creator’s name: Alfred Hoehn

Title of the work above: Drawing Machine Ptolemaios

Year of creation: 2008

I really enjoy the works of Alfred Hoehn, a Swiss artist who constructs large-scale linkage harmonographs. The simple movements of the pendulums create complex images that can look flat/abstract or look almost 3D, depending on how the artist sets the lengths and the diameters of the spinning circles.

The finished product is fun to look at, but the process of watching the image as it’s being drawn is important to the project as well. It’s very mesmerizing and calming –– a few people in the comments section were comparing it to a computer screensaver.

The artist can probably estimate the finished product to an extent, but I like the element of uncertainty. It’s kind of like plugging a random equation and seeing what kind of graph it’ll make.

Caroline Song – Looking Outwards-02

Mitchell Whitelaw specializes in creating generative systems, as well as data-aesthetics. This specific project called Local Colour (made in June 2011), is made out of recycled vegetable boxes, that are both laser-cut and laminated into bowl forms such as the one below. After that, there is a network diagram graphic that is mounted onto the bowls by using a second generative process.

Local Colour, made out of vegetable boxes that have been laser-cut.

I find this project to be interesting because of its use of recycled vegetable boxes to create a bowl, which then showcases a network diagram. Network diagrams can visualize data from places such as social networks, biological systems, and etc. The network diagram being on a bowl is the part that intrigues me because this bridges together the scientific data that network diagrams have, with the artistic form it takes in the shape of a bowl.

I do not know much about the algorithm that generated the work, but I suppose that it took into account the specific curves and edges of the bowl in order to properly infuse the graphic into the form. I also suppose that the algorithm had to somehow take numerical data and translate it into a visual form in order to incorporate it into the bowl.

Whitelaw’s artistic sensibilities are shown in this algorithm very clearly. As I stated above, his algorithm had to take this precise, scientific data and turn it into a graphic that could be presented visually on the laser-cut vegetable boxes. The fact that the data had to go from numbers to graphics alone shows Whitelaw’s artistic side.

12 Tone Serialism

This is less of a specific project but more of a musical movement that occurred in the mid 20th century. Serialism is the systematic composition of music that is completely unbiased in terms of tonal center. Where as most music is written in a key (B major, c minor, etc.), serialistic music equally values each of the 12 notes found in western music.

A key aspect of this form of music is the tone row. Tone rows are mathematically generated lists of the 12 chromatic notes. The only rule to these lists is that each note must appear exactly once. The most famous 12 tone composer was Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951), he is also credited with the creation of the 12 tone system.

https://www.instructables.com/id/Create-a-Twelve-Tone-melody-with-a-Twelve-Tone-Mat/

This website goes into detail about one way of creating tone rows. While this is not the only way to go about doing it, it is one of the most well known methods.

Example of a tone row using all 12 chromatic notes

While the order of the 12 notes is usually random, the artistry of the composer manifests in how they use the notes presented to them. While most serialistic music sounds extremely jarring to first-time listeners, an incredible amount of thought and care goes into their arrangement.

Composers transform their given notes in many creative ways. Some examples would be transposition, retrograde, and inversions. Often, part of the fun of 12 tone pieces is trying to figure out what the composer did to transform their original tone row into the piece you are hearing.

Example from one of Schoenberg’s 12 tone piano pieces
One of Schoenberg’s orchestral works
(If you have never heard this type of music before it might be pretty surprising)

Steven Fei – Looking Outwards – 02


With the development of algorithms, even artistic ideas can be developed and turned into reality with great efficiency. When designing architecture, I always put a lot of manual adjustings and editings for linework drawings and overal layouts of the rooms. However, an architecture studio Wallgren Arkitekter has created some programs embedded in the architectural parametric modeling tool Grasshopper.

Finch’s automatic production of room layouts

View this post on Instagram

Let’s draw some dwellings with #finch3d

A post shared by Jesper Wallgren (@jesper.wallgren) on

Once the site constraints and several specific requirements such as wall thickness and architecture type are set, the program will automatically create elegant drawings for the plans and sections. Meanwhile, the building models are created with great detail. When the user makes changes to the settings, changes in the drawings are laid out instantly. Such an algorithm provides an insight into modern healthy and safe living, and it also takes advantage of the site to generate the most ideal and economic layout for the rooms. Moreover, when combined with other programs that deal with weather and transportation proximities, the algorithm will also produce a map analyzing which house or suite will be most wanted. Such a new program inspires me to compare my own design with what the machine produces and to see which design factors I have considered or not. In addition, the program greatly facilitates the design efficiency and enables us to think in a wider picture for forms and environment.

Click here to see the introduction of the software

Official website for the software:http://finch3d.com/#