This is a generative art piece called The Historical Spiral by designer Ramiro Perez. This project stood out to me because of its presence in three-dimensional space. Perez’s ability to introduce light and shadow to an object that is so evidently mathematically made is mesmerizing to look at and in many ways, makes me ponder how he did it. It seems like Perez used fractals to create the spiral form, but what makes me go “wow” are the micro details that are in the form. If one compares ring by ring, he or she can see that the orientation alternates from laying down to upright. Within each spiral, you can see mini spirals as well, which shows that scaling in and scaling out really just reveals the same mathematical pattern at a different size.For me, the attention to detail is what convinces me that much tought went into the design of this structure.
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.
Kate explaining how she creates generative art with Javascript at the JSConf in Iceland, 2018.
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