Author: peach

One randomly generated work I like is Bogdan Soban’s “Abstract 11”. It looks like a landscape and assumes a painterly quality, but was randomly drawn by code. Soban states that he utilizes innovative image processing that hides the computer origin of pictures, combined with multi-level algorithms, to create the most original works. His definition of generative art describes design that is composed in a random manner. He finds interesting, aesthetic precedents, and develops his own generative designed software that randomly draws new images based on those precedents. Once the program is running, Soban does not interfere with it, rather lets it run its course regardless of its outcome.
His pieces have no outside intervention nor predefined result. I really appreciate Soban’s process because he uses software that he creates on his own, not using existing programs available online.

One two dimensional digital representation that I greatly admire is Stepan Ryabchenko’s “Power Pump,” (2011) a piece of artwork from the Computer Virus Series. I am intriguied by the thoughtfulness put into the work both in its actual physicality as well as its intention and general concept. Essentially Ryabchenko compiled data on major catastrophic viruses that have occurred since the inception of the computer, and gave them an identity be revisualizing them as actual, biological viruses. In the words of art critic Natalia Matsenko, this work renders the virtual nature of the virus which effectively overcomes the “limit between the figurative and the abstract.” It appears as the artist utilized generative modelling as well as parametric modelling in his design, with the shape of the image ebbing and flowing in deliberate ripples. I particularly like this specific piece out of his series because “Power Pump”, while still looking foreboding, further takes on an aesthetic quality that is reflective of the artist’s crossroads of sensibilities as a visual artist, architect, and programmer. The realistic rendering and materiality adds another level of dimension that seems to appear even more than just 3-D in a 2-D representation.

Weather Thingy ECAL/Adrien Kaeser from ECAL on Vimeo.

One piece of art that stands at the intersection of sound and computation is “Weather Thingy” by Adrien Kaeser, created in 2018. This invention takes real time weather data input and converts it into computational data that varies the sound control of connected instruments. It consists of two main components, a weather station on a tripod microphone, and the custom built sound controller that’s connected to the weather station. The controller interface allows the device to assign the parameters received to different audio effects. What is inspiring to me about this piece is that it interprets data across different platforms – it used weather stimulation, such as rain collection or wind power, and is able to translate it into computational data, and then further reapply that to generate specific sounds. I think this is intriguing in its interdisciplinarity. The artist’s sensibilities come through in the way in which he assigns the different audio effects to the inputs – there is a distinct, ethereal quality in the noises produced.

One piece of generative design that has been digitally fabricated is Brazilian architect Guto Requena’s Samba stool. It is a piece of furniture that was created based off traditional Brazilian music. The architects extracted parameters from the songs, such as the bass and treble. From that data they received frequencies that generated the curves, which grew in “real-time following the music.” The data was input into a motorized machine that is controlled by a computer, which sculpted the digital file from a cube of marble. I admire that the architects took music, which to me is a field that seemed disparate from computing, and was able to use innovations from computing to celebrate and share. The stools themselves are also beautiful! While the architect’s design sensibilities weren’t necessarily extremely prevalent, the material choice as well as the concept itself were reflective of Requena’s design personality and background.

With the introduction of generative design in the past decades, the ways in which architecture is rendered has been completely overwrought. One work that I particularly admire is MX3D’s 12-meter long steel bridge in Amsterdam. It is entirely 3-D printed – the construction utilized two industrial level 3-D printers that worked on opposite ends to meet in the center. This method of construction is largely unprecedented, and was only possible through the combination of parametric design and artificial intelligence. One amazing feature of the bridge is that it continues “learning” throughout its lifespan – the designers included sensors connected to a computer model that informs of the performance and behavior of the physical bridge in real time. It measures environmental data such as air quality as well as structural information such as load and strain. This is important because it shows the designer’s conscientiousness of their work’s future impact. They made a practical work of art that’s sustainable for years to come.
The algorithm developed to design the structure is undoubtedly complex, requiring assistance from companies such as Autodesk. It took a multitude of parameters into account, considering the ways in which people and the environment will react to, and interact with, it.
In general, architecture is at the crossroads of aesthetic and practicality. The creator’s artistic sensibility manifests itself in the uniquely defining, yet structurally reliable and complex formation.