Looking Outwards 02: Generative Art

The project “The Orbitals (Variation B)” by Jared Tarbell is about a collection of particles operating on one simple rule: choose another particle in the system and orbit it with a fixed radius at a constant velocity. In this variation, a single root particle is instantiated in the center of the stage. All other particles introduced to the system fall into orbit at some level. I admire how the creator manipulates the work by finely crafting the semantics of each program. The results look random but organized, messy but beautiful. Tarbell creates his images by programming Java applets or Flash ActionScripts to construct visual images based on algorithms. Java applets are used to provide interactive features to web applications and can be executed by browsers for many platforms. In an interview with Jason Bailey, Tarbell explained his perspective on the relationship between art and math, “you can break the world down into these very simple rules that interact on orders of magnitude beyond what we’re capable of imagining.” Tarbell is a programmer and an artist, and his beautiful works seem to have minds of their own.

The Orbitals ( Variation B) August 2004 J.Tarbell