LookingOutwards-02

Generative Web by Dr. Woohoo

I have enjoyed looking at Dr. Woohoo’s “Generative Web.” piece, which they created while exploring creating art with HTML5 + JavaScript painting Engine. I picked this piece because I really like the color gradient, as well as the design on the lefthand side. I found out from reading the blog post for this piece that the color gradient was selected through a program that Dr. Woohoo wrote that sorts colors based on a number of factors, such as popularity, shade, and brightness. I was inspired by this because I like experimenting with colors and I find it very interesting that someone was able to write a program that sorts colors in this way.
It appears that there were multiple algoithms that generated this work, as the artist wrote different code for the colors, brush, and user interface graphics. The artist appears to have been able to show their creative sense through these algoithms because they wrote and created all of them. They set minimums, maximums, and other parameters that they selected, allowing them creative say in some aspects of the work, while surrending certain controls to chance.

“Generative Art” by Dr. Woohoo

Looking Outwards 02 – Generative Art

One of the books from the early series of ‘Curious George’

Behind the childhood animation, ‘Curious George’, there is an untold love story of the authors Hans and Margret Rey. In celebration of the 75th anniversary of ‘Curious George’, filmmaker Ema Ryan Yamazaki decided to put together a mixed-media documentary that tells the love story of the authors. When I was a little girl, I absolutely enjoyed reading the series and watching the TV show. Before reading this artile, I did not know that the animation was created by two German immigrants who were also a married couple as well. Children would think nothing more of the series of ‘Curious George’. However, as adults, I think it becomes very important to learn where the inspiration of the animation comes from.

As the filmmaker explained how ‘Curious George’ was a reflection of their life experiences and personalities, I was very fascinated by the connection. It is amazing how one can bring a story to life through a creative animation. However, the process of creating this animation as well as incorporating the same style of ‘Curious George’ is a load of work. Since the project itself consists of 15,000 hand-drawn drawings, Yamazaki had been trying to raise the funds so that more people can help. To this very day, it still amazes me how a set of drawings can be transformed into a motion picture. As a filmmaker, Yamazaki’s artistic sensibilities was able to develop the idea of presenting the story of Hans and Margret Rey through their own style. Choosing the same style that was used for ‘Curious George’ creates such a strong connection because it gives everyone a reminder of the animation.

LO2- GENERATIVE ART

Guto Requena- Samba Stool 2014

https://gutorequena.com/samba-stool

Generative design helps designers in going through a big number of possible combinations in a short amount of time. By allowing computers to run possibilities that are of parametric design and accuracy, the architect is able to devote the remaining time to design more thoroughly. This also creates multiple solutions for the same project that the architect might have been unable to think of or foresee.

I admire furniture design, in general. However, the Samba Stool allows music to become a mix of design with music. By analyzing classic samba songs through vocals, vass, treble, rhythm, etc, frequency curves were generated. Requena organizes these curves into an organic and smooth surface on a digital file.

Guto Requena’s generative design is then sculpted on a CNC machine to create a marble stool. Digital simulations and geometric manipulation allowed a variety of possibilities of shapes and designs in this process and has allowed a cultural and aesthetic manifestation of design.

For a piece of generative art that I found inspirational, I chose the work “Strich” by Leander Herzog. The work itself is very visually pleasing in its graphic simplicity. There are the same six colors no matter how you interact with it. That being said, it is an interactive work, similar to this weeks project in which one clicks their mouse for a different visual. In this work however, the work will continue to move and develop until the mouse is clicked again. Besides the mouse click aspect, it seems that the forms being constantly generated are random. Lines of one of the six colors, appear, and then they expand their width across the screen in a direction. I find it especially cool that in his case that he applies complex algorithms to very basic geometries, rather than using an algorithm to generate highly complex geometries.

http://www.leanderherzog.ch/strich/

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I was interested in Mitchell Whitelaw’s Succession. It is a beautiful, haunting work that I think takes a modern approach to documenting and presenting history. I find the combination of each fossil element to have the striking effect of confusing viewers and forcing them to take time to pick apart and understand each element. Each part of the composite it displays is shown below the entire image so viewers may deconstruct the composite to better understand the work. Whitelaw’s description presents the mechanics of the code, which selects five images from a database of two thousand and combines them. I suppose there is something which controls how the images fit together, most likely which controls each layer, as there is a foreground and many layers of backgrounds, and an algorithm for transparency as well. It’s a very deep work which presents Whitelaw’s own respect for the culture as all of the pieces of the composite are presented as vital, and even pieces of the composite are recognized below. His description includes his artistic goal for the piece: to present new views on industrial capitalism and find new ways to document and look backwards.

https://mtchl.net/succession/#

A generated image from Succession (Whitelaw, 2014)

Looking Outwards 02 – Generative Art

Drawing Water, designed by David Wicks, is a piece of generative art shaped by the relationship between where rainfalls are and water consumption in the United States. What I really admire about this work is that not only is it aesthetically pleasing, but people can also have interactive experiences with the installation. I love how little lines flow together in different colors on the screen, and it amazes me how all these lines correspond to the daily rainfall measurement in the United States. Each line is driven by water consumption and rainfall data, where David Wicks utilizes these datas to program his installation. The length of each line is determined by the amount of rainfall measured, and the initial placement of the lines are determined by where the rainfall fell. The final placement of the lines and the colors are based on urban water consumption in the States. I can clearly see and appreciate David Wicks’ delicate and artistic sensibility through the soft but dynamic movements of each line in his installation.

Looking Outward 02 – Generative Art

Memo Aktens – “Gloomy Sunday”, 2017.

In the biography of his website, Memo Aktens writes that his “biggest inspiration is trying to understand the world around me.” Aktens’s unique perspective is reflected in his series “Learning to See”, involving him taking ordinary household objects like towels and cables and generating them into beautiful, lifelike landscapes. Seeing a video of the algorithm in action, it amazes me just how seamlessly it works and the level of abstraction it can produce from a simple arrangement of objects. He seems to be able to take this basic concept and extend it to different mediums, such as running a similar program to transform a video of a dancing saxophonist into a moving rock formation by the beach. I am not too sure how Akten’s algorithm works, but he mentions that this series works utilizes machine learning and that he trained this model with images of four categories: ocean & waves, clouds & sky, fire, flowers, and images from the Hubble Space Telescope.

Memo Aktens – “#EpicGanGuy2019”, 2019.

Looking Outwards – 2

“Quantum Fluctuations: Experiments in Flux,” is a generative art work by artist Markos Kay. The artwork is a collaboration between him and scientists at the CERN research institute in Geneva. Kay aims to represent the quantum world through art and technology, therefore, visualizing processes which otherwise cannot be seen by bare eyes. Kay aims to “measure the spoils of a proton collision and compares the findings with data collected from supercomputer simulations.”

These complex and gorgeous combinations attracted me because there was a language between both Kay and the quantums, almost questioning who the real artist is. Along with that I appreciate how Kay was able to depict so beautifully something the man would most likely never see.
http://www.mrkism.com/quantum.html

LO 2 – Generative Art

One generative art project that I find immensely inspirational is City Icon, designed and coded by Marcin Ignac at Variable (2012).

City Icon by Martin Ignac featured at Sustainable Cities exhibition by Siemens in the Crystal building in London.

A generative city simulation, City Icon shows the complex interactions of a city’s intersecting systems, including traffic jams, water streams, nature enclaves, emergency states, and energy sources. As a person who has always been exposed to New York City, one of the most popular cities in the world, I was even more attracted to this project because it shows a side to a city that we are unable to see.

We take advantage of the outcomes of all of these city systems, yet we do not appreciate the process to these outcomes. Ignac’s design of this simulation allows for audiences of all types to easily experience the dynamic workings of a city as well as grasp a sense of balanced amidst chaos.

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In one of Quayola’s work, Jardins d’Été, a realistic video of flowers gently brushed by the breeze gradually evolves into an impressionism oil painting as if the movement of the petals blurred the paint on the canvas. The whole transitional process is so smooth and subtle that it successfully captures the sensual artistic aspect of impressionism painting and the subtle nuances beyond human perception. I like how the artist employs technology as a lens to explore the tension and balance between the old and new. Through this lens, we can travel back through time and imagine what the artist saw that inspired him or her to capture that beautiful moment.

The website does not provide much info about the algorithm behind the scene, but I suppose it involves detecting which area in the video moves the most and this part will be processed first and so on until the entire image is modified.

The artist’s sensibility is embedded in the ways in which nature is synthesized and represented. The color, movement, lighting, and sounds all worked well together.