LO-06 Randomness

For this week’s looking outwards, I thought I would discuss something unconventional. While we normally consider art within a narrow frame, computational art casts a much wider net and I thought this might fit. Every year for april fool’s, since the game’s release in 2011, Mojang (which develops the game) releases a joke update for Minecraft, and this year’s was extraordinary.

Using every facet of the game’s parameters for world generation, this snapshot allows players to randomly generate entire worlds. Consisting of everything from endless procedurally generated structures to maze-like worlds made entirely of sponge. This update takes the beautiful but rather utilitarian world generation of minecraft to a new level by generating endless experiential environments that often amaze with their sublime beauty. Instead of working within normal ranges for materials like dirt & stone to create a natural-looking world, the algorithm instead uses wild, extreme parameters to create dimensions out of any and all materials or structures in the game. A bit like H.R. Geiger playing god, the sheer strangeness of it all is captivating. It’s right in line with the sort of simple, sublime beauty that Minecraft has always sought to capture – from its soundtrack to its design.

-Robert