Kristine Kim – Looking Outward-02

Tarbell, the artist of “Happy Place,” solely uses computer programs and algorithms to generate his own unique graphic designs. I was instantly drawn into his pieces because of the beautiful textures and the rapid movement he captures just with computer coding. The lines and shear layers that breaks the boundaries of the form of a color is really interesting and compelling that makes me want to just stare at it for a long period of time. Looking into the piece and especially the center of the design, it provides an illusion of it spinning and moving.  The color palette also helps the design to portray the smooth and blurry effect this piece provides. For this piece, J.Tarbell used the technique of connected random nodes with preferences to nodes closer. This piece was different then his other works because he claims that he manipulates his works by finely crafting the semantics of each program, but “Happy Place” was open to surprising discoveries. J.Tarbell claims that all code is dead and unnecessary unless it is executed within the computer so he distributes the source of his code in modifiable forms. 

http://complexification.net/gallery/machines/happyPlace/index.php