Jasmine Lee – Looking Outwards – 02

The project I admire is Silk created by Yuri Vishnevsky in 2012 (with music and sounds by Mat Jarvis). It is an interactive introduction to generative art, in that it allows users of the website to create their own images. The website uses the user’s mouse coordinates to create lines, which is then dictated by the program’s algorithm to manifest in a fractal-like manner. I’ve often used this website to relax in the past, as it is therapeutic to see the colorful lines of light dance across the page.

From what I can understand, the code takes the mouse’s coordinates and then uses them to generate lines from one point to the next. Then, that line is being duplicated and angled in a way that we get “silk” threads coming off of each main line. This produces a tangled effect similar to that of a silk web. The creator’s artistic sensibilities definitely come off in their algorithm, as there were specific choices that were made to create the weave-like effect of dancing light. This website would have given off a very different feeling if the creator had chosen to just use simple straight lines. Furthermore, the addition of rotational symmetry in the algorithm allows users to experience surprising effects as they move their mouse across the screen. Shapes that seem like stars, webs, hexagons, and flowers are prone to appearing as users explore.