LookingOutwards-02

LO: Generative Art

One generative art that I find inspiring is the “noise warp” series by Holger Lippmann. Using processing, Lippmann created his art by using a 2D X/Y noise structure that elongated shapes to produce brushstrokes. Lippmann was inspired heavily from the 20th-century artists who painted with expressive fluid brushstrokes. Even though his art was created through various long rectangles, they flow well and create fluidity. Through his code and noise, he was able to imitate that way of painting with various landscape photos he had taken himself. His generative art reminds me heavily of Van Gogh and Monet, but with Monet, the lines are more fluid. It distorts the reality of the landscape yet creates a beautiful fluidity of colors. I find this series very tranquil and pleasing to the eye, almost as if looking at his art in a dream state.

Holger Lippmann: http://www.lumicon.de/wp/?p=3623

Looking Outwards 02: Generative Art

UCracking, Marius Watz

This piece was published as part of Absolut Art Exchange, 2014.

The piece uses 2D geometric figures to create 3D textures and forms. I admire the use of bright colors and the different geometric shapes in the art. It looks very clean and detailed, but there is also a level of creativity in the piece.
This piece also makes me question how artists can express their creativity in art that is made out of code and algorithms.

Watz named these pieces “UCracking” based on “cracking” algorithms that are based on subdivision algorithms.

Fundamentally, logic and creativity are completely different – logic follows a set of rules and bounds, while creativity encourages freedom of thought, and lacks any boundaries. How do creativity and computer logic interact? How do you express creativity through something that fundamentally has rules and bounds?

The visuals are based on subdivision algorithms, also known as cracking. Subdivision algorithms split triangles into a new set of smaller triangles through some coded operation. The triangles are colored accordingly, and those triangles are further split, until the result is an art piece.

LO: Generative Art

Generative art has become such a tool to reflect on what we have seen until now and use those tools to create new scenes and dream-like experiences. Refik Anadol does exactly this.

‘Machine Hallucinations’, a synesthetic reality experience explores the connections between collective memories and archival tendencies of humans.

Powered by an algorithm fed over 100 million photographs of New York City, this 30 minute cinematic installation helps us to understand why we record experiences and hold onto memories into every step of a coming reality. Using the immense data that it has been provided and learned from, the algorithm produces scenes of a transforming New York City (in a possible future) and a multitude of similar dream-like ‘hallucinations’.

Examples of algorithmic studies done based on NYC photography.

Anadol’s work stood out to me as it begins the exploration in answering why we as humans act the way we do, all while introducing machines and AI as the possible vehicle for carrying out these considerations. His work not only serves to explore alternate realities through a visual medium, but also to bring a more hopeful narrative to the apocalyptic relationship between AI and humans that we often see today.

LO2- Generative Art

I really liked Allison Parrish’s Compasses.
http://sync.abue.io/issues/190705ap_sync2_27_compasses.pdf

It “has two parts: a “speller,” which spells words based on how they sound, and a “sounder-out,” which sounds out words based on how they’re spelled. In the process of sounding out a word, the “sounder-out” produces a fixed-length numerical vector, known as a “hidden state,” which is essentially a condensed representation of a word’s phonetics. The “speller” can then use the phonetic information contained in this hidden state to produce a plausible spelling of the word.” (http://portfolio.decontextualize.com/) It really drew my eye on how it’s reproducing what has been produced. I like how it’s poetic and artistic yet very dry at the same time because of its mechanical nature. I have no idea of how she created the algorithm to generate this work, but I guess it’s some kind of machine learning. I liked how she took the multiple layers of the words and regenerate different forms of the words.

LO2 – Generative Art

LIA’s SV01, SV15, SV04, SV08 was a generative art installation at One Culver creative space, Culver City, California, displayed on 2018/07/01 – 2018/09/30 and 2018/07/01 – 2018/12/31. Most of her contract work seems to be displayed on a large screen in large, public areas. The large scale of LIA’s art is what inspires me– it commands just the right amount of presence and has the impact to elevate the space to feel more high-end and dynamic. Though the reel showcases moving pictures that involve both angular and more fluid, blob-like shapes, they all complement the architectural elements of the space and serves as both an aesthetically-pleasing side piece but also a moment for visitors to be present in the space and admire the artwork.

I believe the algorithm that generated the work is probably dependent on layers and has a flexible system that controls transparency. Semi-transparent layers crossing over each other at a more-or-less constant pace are a recurring element in LIA’s work. LIA’s artistic sensibilities are very present in her work, as she must create a piece of work that not only matches but elevates the experience of a large space. It is functional in that way, but it is also a very abstract concept that she must translate into a tangible product.

LO- Generative Artists

“Obelisk” (2020) by the artist Leander Herzog is a work of generative art that I find inspirational. I admire the artwork because it utilizes simple colors and geometries to create a hypnotic effect. The color palette and the motion remind me of the Op-Art of artists like Bridget Riley. I suppose that the algorithm behind this generative art work generates vertical and horizontal lines and restricts them so that they only display in specified areas. For the vertical lines, I believe there is a variable that adds an increasing value to the x-coordinate of the endpoints, and for the horizontal lines, I believe a similar increasing variable is applied to the y-coordinate of the endpoints. Most likely, there is also code in place to reset these values when the variable has increased to a certain number, so that the motion loops. I think that the algorithm reflects the creator’s attraction to the ideas of repetition and permutation.

Aaron Koblin – Flight Paths

Flight Patterns – Aaron Koblin

Koblin’s map of the United States flight paths for a day.

A motion visualization of the paths.

I am combining economic, psychological and creative studies as a Behavioral Economics major and an architecture and (hopefully) design minor. My combined vision of these two fields is actually exactly what is being manifested in this project. I love that in economics, human behavior is solidified and represented in a graph (hence the BePO major). The design comes in for most effectively representing this data to a viewer, and I think that Koblin used design perfectly to emulate the nature of flight paths. His sensibility comes in when making decisions about how to use brightness to suggest crowded areas, color for flight type, and opacity to enhance movement. So, this artwork essentially captures the type of work I want to be involved in. The team used Processing, a software designed to mimic hand-drawn visuals, to visualize the data. I would guess that the algorithm uses the start and endpoints of flights, as well as the speed, height, and time of day. There may be code that provides the most efficient and safe route using engine science and other air traffic to generate paths.

LO 2 – Generative Art

Galápagos

Karl Sims (1997)

http://www.karlsims.com/galapagos/

The piece of generative art that I find fascinating is Galápagos by Karl Sims—an interactive evolution of virtual “organisms.” Viewers participate by selecting an organism they find the most aesthetically interesting out of 12 organisms displayed on TV screens. They then stand on sensors in front of the display, and the chosen organism mates, mutates, and reproduces to form new offspring. Organisms not selected are transformed into new offspring from the chosen organism. Gradually, increasingly interesting and creative organisms are produced and emerge on the TV displays.

I was first drawn to this piece because I thought the organisms looked extremely cool—one had multicolored spikes and tentacles, another had globular yellow “feet” protruding from a mushroom shaped “body,” and another one seemed fluorescent with its glowing “legs” that resembled butterfly wings. To create this piece, I assume that Sims would use the randomize function that we used in class to continuously create refreshing and new designs. The parameters, however, would become more constricting as the evolutionary line becomes more specific with each participant selection to create a family of organisms that are visually related.

The “parent” organism is in the upper left corner, and the remaining 11 organisms are “offspring” from that parent. Mutations cause various differences between the offspring and their parents.

The twelve screen display in which viewers select the most aesthetically interesting organism to continue the evolutionary line.

Looking Outwards 02

Title: Ultrachunk
Artists: Memo Atken, Jennifer Walshe

Ultrachunk is a generative project collaboration between vocalist Jennifer Walshe and artist Memo Atken within which Atken used a machine learning system to produce recordings of Walshe’s face and voice based on pre-recorded videos of the singer’s improvisations. Walshe was then able to perform live with her AI doppelganger, harmonizing as the generated image reproduced her voice in real time. The result is an unconventionally beautiful–yet sometimes haunting–duet of sounds and faces. I am fascinated by this project as I feel that it begins to demonstrate the extent of the power of AI. While captivating and intriguing to watch, it also brings up a new set of questions and possibilities–to what extent can technology infiltrate the world of art? Music has traditionally been an artform produced from human emotion and consumed by those who relate to it, but what happens when a piece of machinery can generate the same results?

A recording of Walshe performing with her AI generated self.

The work that I find inspirational is “Cables” created by Moka. It is the exact work that I like the ways of which the cables are intertwined in an order. Plus, the colors of the background and the cables are all appealing. The cables with light yellow and blue are spread horizontally and the others with pink and deep blue are spread vertically, but we don’t find the whole artwork to be complex, instead I think it is rather neat. I suppose the algorithm that generated the work is a program that can select the colors of the “lines” and the intervals of each color. The lines are probably on different covers so that they seem to be up or below one another. The artist hopes that his works can reveal a similar relationship between us and the machines. The crooked cables are arranged parallel to one another, and I think this is telling the audience how complicated information is transported and how the development of technology is forming our lives in a way that we don’t usually perceive. The different colors of each cable illustrates a different type of material that is transported through cables, whose colorfulness shows that our wonderful and convenient life is a bliss from technologies.

https://www.mokafolio.de/works/Cables