LookingOutwards-06 – Page 5 – [OLD FALL 2019] 15-104 • Introduction to Computing for Creative Practice

Paul Greenway – Looking Outwards – 06

This art piece by generative artist Keith Peters is called Random Lissajous Webs. Peters makes use of Adobe Flash to code abstract generative art with this project specifically exploring the concept of random elements influencing the design. To create this set of images, Peters created code to generate a web of lissajous curves that used random velocity inputs which each resulted in a unique variation of the web.

I thought this project demonstrated the potential of random numbers when creating generative art with code. While initially the idea of randomness seems to go against often careful considerations and planning that typically goes into design, it can prove to be a great way of adding an element of unpredictability to the art. By using these randomly generated velocities in each curve, Peters was able to create a diverse set of images each with their own distinct feel while still clearly looking like they had been generated by the same base script.

Set of webs each with different curve velocities

Xu Xu – Looking Outwards – 06

The stigmergic system is an agent-based growing tower created by Institute for advanced architecture of Catalonia. Through the use of this multi-agent-based system in a stigmergic environment, a column is created. The column starts at designated coordination points and moves to certain endpoints (or targets) following specific paths (or desired velocity). With the use of grasshopper code, the agents are guided through ‘steering’ so they move within the cylindrical shape. The Data Dam collects the agents with the network between adjacent points.

Afterwards, the velocity lines and network lines become visible, and the ‘variable-sweep’ makes the tower apparent. The combination of those towers creates the column, which happens in a bottom-up growing manner. The data inputs simply guide the agents, but the output is the randomness combined with steering and velocity. I admire the use of randomness in creating structures, which I can envision being applied to future architectural designs. Using randomness as part of our architectural creation is beginning to be introduced to the world.

A03 GVanlimburgstirum

Monica Chang – Looking Outwards – 06

There’s always a fear that the use of random data can imply that the creator has no sense of intentionality or ability to make a decision. However, designers have been able to develop a way that randomness becomes more of a generative tool that helps overcome the limits of the artists’ imaginations than an arbitrary statement.

Aaron Tobey, the creator of the project below, agrees with this idea as he specifically states that integrating randomness in design does not “eliminate” the artist, but rather “displaces” the artist in the process of the creation. With this project, Tobey was required to create a pseudo random number generator using the “register and tap” method to also create a design. He was also required to consider the idea of “working” as a set of logical operations rather than watching what the generator comes up with. Furthermore, he creates a frame-by-frame animation with this collection of randomized, data-driven imagery.

Coding Architecture Project: Randomness by Aaron Tobey

A closer look into a single frame of Tobey’s Randomness project.

The amount of thought and registration that was required for this project is what intrigued and satisfied me the most. Integrating randomness within art or a design was something that was always tricky in the notion of producing an elaborate creation. Many believe that when a creator utilizes randomness in their artwork, they either lack in depth or purpose and is nothing but made of surface. However, with this project, it helps build a visual piece of evidence that even randomness can open the creator’s option of forming a design that can be composed within the artist’s visual field.

Sean Meng-Looking Outwards-06

Vladimir Kanic’s filmmaking artwork
“Art concept that uses chaos theory and randomness to create structured art.”
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Krgp_QwfEJo

Transmedia filmmaking artist Vladimir Kanic used chaos theory* as a filmmaking tool and explored how a film can be made by using randomness as its principal structural language. In order to perform the process, the artist and his team have devised a concept of the Magic box, designed to serve as a model system of randomness. Twelve boxes were given to randomly chosen art directors, and each one had to put a random number of objects inside, seal the box and not disclose the contents to anyone. A group of random people set the boxes into a completely unorganized stash, and the artist had to choose one and pick it up on a random day. Since the artist didn’t know what kind of a film is going to be created, its structural language and technique were decided by observing and measuring randomness that emanated from the objects concealed in the box. The project and methodology explores how randomness can be define in multiple dimensions and how to engage people to interact with randomness and how the final work that had been generated can be unpredictable at the beginning.

Claire Lee – Looking Outwards – 06

I decided to write about Yale architecture student Aaron Tobey’s Randomness Project. It seems to have been for a coding-based architecture course, and essentially runs a program that draws a randomly-generated set of lines and shapes on 36 canvases. I found it really interesting because each of the 36 canvases were in the same format (same background and same color/weight of line) but seemed like they were generated with different programs. I admired that despite these variations, the entire piece is cohesive and comes together in an aesthetically pleasing way.

Random Video Project, Aaron Tobey, 2015.

Trying to think around the algorithms that might have created this piece was really interesting because unlike some of the previous works I’ve found, this was a student’s work. I still think that it goes a little beyond the scope of what I’ve learned to do so far, but the script used to create this visual piece uses a set of rules to overlap circles, triangles, and lines in a random but constrained space, with a defined frame per second rate. It starts out with a “base” piece–a set of randomly generated canvases containing shapes that don’t change– and then layers dynamic shapes on top of that. I’m not sure whether these bases are hard-coded (for aesthetic purposes?) or not, but they seem fairly random.

CJ Walsh – Looking Outwards 06 – Randomness

The piece that I chose to focus on for this week’s Looking Outwards is by Georg Nees. He is considered a pioneer in the world computer art and graphics. While this piece is pretty simple, I enjoyed it for a variety of reasons. I like to sketch in a lot of my notebooks, and all of the lines remind me of the things that I doodle when I’m in class. Another aspect that really stands out to me is on their own, each of the small drawings would seem insignificant. But, when combined into the large grid with all of the other generated drawings, it creates a really intriguing image. It almost feels like a diagram of some kind of language or alphabet, which is cool.

In order to create this piece, Nees set random parameters for each graphic. The rules that he set was that eight dots would be placed inside the established canvas, and then they would be connected by lines into a closed edge shape. He states that, “The program for each graphic repeats generative fundamental operations so that the mere repetitions, the aesthetic redundancy, produce the random parametric values of the aesthetic improbability of the graphic during each repetition.”

It is interesting to think about how far computer graphics and art has come since Nees first created and presented these works. Looking back at this piece now, we see it as quite simple compared to the other forms you can create using code. At the time, this work was revolutionary. This piece conveys a sense of experimentation, which reflects exactly what Nees was doing with his work. It wasnt about creating an artistically beautiful work of art. It was a part of a larger experiment into the capabilities of programming. And even if this may not be considered high art, it is a cool piece to look at and one that I admire.

Kimberlyn Cho – Looking Outwards 06

The “Random Number Multiple” series by Marius Watz and Jer Thorp attempt to encourage artists to use old school fine art strategies to hand print their computational (any computer or software-based) art. As part of the “Random Numbers” exhibit in NYC, the series takes part in a platform curated by Christina Vassallo for artists to experiment with new techniques or mediums.

Marius Watz’s “Arc” series uses a somewhat random composition of radial shapes that are distorted by a 3d surface to imitate a sense of movement while maintaining a focal point. Jer Thorp took a more systematic approach than Watz by using the newspaper as his reference. He tracked the frequency of specific words in the New York Times in a twenty-year time period, which he then graphed using a randomized group of colors based on the theme of the artwork.

I found the combinative nature of the design process of these artworks to be most interesting. Most artists seem to go about one specific way of producing their art, whether it be by hand or with a certain software. I found it innovative how Watz and Thorp use a software to produce the computational image they want and then incorporate a factor of randomness with either the colors or array of the shapes to portray the work with traditional techniques. The timeless incorporation of a variety of strategies leaves room for results that might’ve not been expected or accidental new elements to the creation that creates work that the artist can then learn from.

Sarah Choi – Looking Outwards – 06

Norimichi Hirakawa , 16 unknowns and the irreversible (2013) from norimichi hirakawa on Vimeo.

Norimichi Hrakawa’s The Irreversible is a sequence of a thousand and twenty-four randomized two-second digital videos depicting the art of time. This recorded reversed time ticks forward in real-time on the minds of his audience. He explains he wanted to convey the idea of the past and present. He plays with the idea of realizing how the now is perceived to be different from what happened to people individually in the past as recent as a couple of seconds ago.

The algorithms in which he was able to create his piece was completely through digital manipulation of his code. He focused on using inverse operations and generating a random method to create a moving illusion for two seconds. After each two-second video, he made his code restart, similar to the i = 0 functions we’ve been learning in class.

In its final form, Hrakawa’s work brings out abstract and randomly produced generative art produced solely through digital manipulation. His creativity and play on time were intriguing to read about. He believes technological tools and computation develop innovative ideas for his art. From the beginning, Hrakawa relied on computation to explore more areas for themes to his art. He applied theorems of math and physics as parameters, and further advanced his art through playing with plotted pixels based on two-dimensional paintings. In terms of color, he explored R, G, and B color formats and created equations to randomize specific colors to his work.

http://counteraktiv.com/#wrk

Xiaoyu Kang – Looking Outwards – 06

This projected is first presented at the exhibition at the Louchard Gallery in December, 2017. It consist of a series of small to medium sized drawings that are in relations to chaos and order. They all focuses on the idea of “directed randomness”. The drawings are all done on rice paper and watercolor. Gold refers are also used in reference to traditonal Inian art as a sacred art elements.

The project is started first by applying watercolor pigments randomly to the canvas. After the application, the author alters the rythem of the watercolor with an iron as a drawing tool. So as a result, the final drawing is presented with a combination of conscious and unbconscious act, which in the end creates a new form of order. The pigment application process is uncontrolled but the water drying process is controlled.

Steven Fei-Looking Outwards-06

Randomness has brought artists with a more natural composition of artworks. However, randomness in artistic expressions is still under intentional control to maintain a better big picture.

The artist, Tyler Hobbs, who takes advantage of random numbers, combines his intention of relating randomness to graphical proximity, transparency, brightness of the specific elements to create amazing compositions. The Continuity No. 8 impresses me the most with its “random” intention to create the architectural space. By generating semi-random quadrilateral shapes, the artist carefully controls the sizes of the elements and allows the intersections of the shapes to become negative spaces. By randomly choosing focal points, the artist succeeds in creating a collage painting with multiple perspectives and transparencies. The overlapping areas are randomly distributed in adjustment with the transparency and brightness to give a visual depth and hierarchy. Meanwhile, contents from different layers are thus connected to give a pseudo-realistic effect.

Such an interesting painting of randomness me inspires me that by combining the random numbers and sizes with specific parameters such as transparency and brightness, we are able to depict an architecture or even a scenary. I have never thought of random images or polygons can “have” such intentions to collaborate under these manipulations. What’s more, such a process will never produce two same compositions, meaning that the infinite graphical collages and abstract paintings can be created even under one same template.

The Artist’s Portfolio

Click here to see the thought process of the artist