Author: Sapna

Looking Outwards 11: Societal Impacts of Digital Art

The article is about ImageNet Roulette, a classification tool that uses artificial intelligence to sort and categorize pictures. It was created by Trevor Pagan and Kate Crawford who were hoping to reveal some “racist, misogynistic and cruel results” with their platform to highlight issues with biases in artificial intelligence. The data set that trains the AI is widely used in the industry and consists of over 14 million images. The article highlights an extremely concerning issue of the AI highlighting white individuals with common descriptors regarding their careers, personalities, etc. However, black participants primarily reviewed results that reflected their race. Fortunately, changes were made to the database, and images and descriptors were removed to reduce the negative biases the software was creating.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/art-project-exposed-racial-biases-artificial-intelligence-system-180973207/

LO Week 09:

I looked at LIA, specifically their ‘ ProximityOfNeeds 20210428 ’ (2021) project that is now on auction at a curated NFT collection. I thought it was especially cool how they incorporated sound like we are learning in class, to match the visuals being created on screen. It’s quite a satisfying change in pitch as the shapes are being drawn and the control of them stopping in such a natural clunking way when the spirals come together is really nice too. I really like how the form of the shape in the different versions changes the tone and feel of the sound too.

LIA is a Software Art Company established in 1995 run by Lia who “focuses on the translation of certain experienced principles into abstract forms, movements, and colors in order to allow the viewer to explore the same on a subconscious level” (source: LIA About Page) which is a really fascinating way of thinking about how we experience the digital world and is something that is only going to be more relevant with the rise of AR/VR.

Looking Outwards 08

The Hyphen Labs: In Emergency Break Glass

Eyeo (2018)

Hyphen labs, run by Ece Tankal and Carmen Aguilar y Wedge, is a lab whose projects have a wide range of qualities– from ‘translating between realities’, to experimentation, aesthetics, empowerment, and speculative. They describe themselves to still not have a super definite style and identity, especially since they started recently in 2014.

They introduced a kinetic light installation that they had been working on called Pragmatic in New York City. I thought their thought process and the relationship that was created between intention and form– especially in terms of how the form of the piece was influenced by the mood they wanted to create– was really cool. The concept of bringing the outside in is something I am curious about, especially when thinking about emerging spaces in AR/VR and even just the general advancements in technology. I think the project was a nice balance between mood and rhythms from the outside in without trying too hard to replace the experience of being outside.

Their project visualizing deaths from the opioid crisis was also one that really caught my eye. The detail that went to crafting every pill is mind-blowing. I think it was really engaging to see their projects all presented primarily in video format– it was really effective in quickly and holistically communicating big ideas.

https://vimeo.com/channels/eyeo2018/287093806http://hyphen-labs.com/prismatic.html

Looking Outwards 07: Computational Information Visualization

To better understand Computational Information Visualization, I looked into the Visual Earth project led by Dr. Lev Manovich. It’s a really cool project that compiles data about images and photographs on the internet on a visual map of the earth in order to understand global growth trends better, and how our visually heavy spaces online vary geographically in relation to various factors like economic and cultural differences. They compute this by using images from Twitter that have the locations tagged. However, they mention only processing a part of the total data set they collect (100 out of 270 million) which is done through a random process much like the ‘random’ function in p5.js. The visual form of processing and communicating this massive amount of information is really useful in allowing people to visually process different rates of image sharing as they are influenced by things like income or even geographical landscape.

https://visual-earth.net/

Looking Outwards 06

Randomness in generative art

Vera Molnar’s work was amongst the first to be using computation to create art. She would use algorithms that delicately balanced randomness and purpose. This is especially true for her piece titled ‘Dialog Between Emotion and Method’ from 1986 where the idea of computational control is linked to method but the randomness of emotion makes the cube-square-like forms chaotic and unorderly. I suppose a majority of her algorithm revolved around creating the random colorful lines but she used constraints to trap the randomness in squares throughout the canvas– a bit like organized chaos. I think the way she breaks the idea of perfection and order that computationally creating art can quite easily provide and instead leans into disrupting it to create more visually intriguing forms.

https://muda.co/veramolnar/http://dada.compart-bremen.de/item/artwork/127

Looking Outwards: Sound Art

I looked at the MediaArtTube YouTube channel and found a project called ‘Study of Time’ by Random International. The piece was presented at the Miami Art Basel in 2011 and plays with the idea of time in relation to light and sound. The brightness and intensity of the light in relation to how each point/ light source on the plane lights up in contrast or union with those around it are used to complement the sound the viewers hear.

When prominent chords or louder sounds are heard, there is direct visual feedback on the installation as points on the surface light up faster. The slower speed of lighting up and the gradient effect of the lights complemented the slower increase of volume and sounds. The light beams also cast shadows on these cylinders perpendicular to the surface, creating different numbers which were also really cool in immersing a viewer in thinking about time and creating an emotional environment with the sound and lights.

I would imagine algorithms were used to recognize aspects from the sound clip and transfer that to the intensity and speed of light for the various light points.

https://www.random-international.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbvjKXHbjuM

LO 03: Computational Fabrication

The Helix Bridge at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore was designed by Cox Architects and ARUP Engineers. I think it’s a really cool example of computational fabrication that took physical form and can be physically interacted with. It takes characteristics of DNA structure, is extremely efficient with the amount of material needed to build it, and can support the weight of 16 thousand people at a time.

The bridge was inspired by DNA structures and uses Euclid’s axioms algorithm which focuses on the interlocking relationships between points. The basic slice of the pattern of the bridge was most likely decided on and then rotated at regular intervals around a “spine” which runs through the center where the pavement would be. These were connected to one another using a ‘polyline’ variable that links and laces points from each of the slice patterns as it twists to create the DNA spiral-looking bridge. Triangular bracing to ensure structural stability and other components for the physical functionality of the bridge were computed by finding patterns that link certain points of the slice to others, pairing, and adding pieces to them.

Main source: http://asd.courses.sutd.edu.sg/cdt/parametric-modelling/

LO 02: Generative Art

Form is a Fluid by Leonardo Solaas, October 2016

I looked at the generative art-inspired geometric structures by Leonardo Solaas. I think it’s really interesting how he used code and patterns to comment on the fluidity of form. There wasn’t much information about the code and algorithm itself but I would assume it involved moving through the number of lines that would be in the drawing, ranging from around 6 to 12, and slightly changing the angle and adjusting the length of every repetition to achieve that twisting movement as you look from one side to the other of the collection. When the individual drawings are looked at zoomed in, they are much more detailed and delicately crafted. I assume there was some part of the algorithm that created hatching lines between a point and different edges. The artist’s abilities especially shine through when looking at the chairs placed in front of the generated geometrical shapes– you can clearly connect the chairs to their inspiration and I think the process of studying form in this simulated but really organic way is super cool and inspiring. 

La forma es un fluido

Self Portrait

sketch
function setup() {
    createCanvas(300, 300);
    background(200, 213, 185);
}

function draw() {
    noStroke()
    fill(0);
    rect(75, 55, 150, 220); // hair
    fill(200, 213, 185);
    triangle(130, 30, 25, 150, 1, 1); // define hair background
    triangle(170, 30, 275, 150, 299, 1); 

    fill(200, 162, 200);
    ellipse(150, 320, 200, 160); // shirt

    fill(198, 136, 99); // face base
    ellipse(150, 150, 125, 165);
    ellipse(150, 180, 120, 100);
    rect(130, 200, 40, 50);

    fill(0);
    triangle(180, 60, 80, 130, 90, 80); // define hair bangs
    triangle(120, 60, 220, 130, 210, 80); 

    fill(250, 243,221); // eyes white
    noStroke();
    ellipse(120, 155, 30, 20);
    ellipse(180, 155, 30,20);

    fill(0); // eyeballs
    ellipse(120, 155, 17, 17);
    ellipse(180, 155, 17, 17);

    rect(100, 130, 35, 10); // eyebrows
    rect(160, 130, 35, 10);

    fill(198, 136, 99); // eye smile skin color
    rect(100, 158, 45, 20);
    rect(160, 158, 45,20);

    fill(250, 243,221); // smile
    noStroke();
    ellipse(150, 195, 50, 25);
    fill(198, 136, 99); // smile skin color
    rect(100, 172, 80, 20);

    stroke(0); // glasses
    strokeWeight(2);
    noFill();
    arc(120, 155, 50, 50, 50, 50);
    arc(180, 155, 50, 50, 50, 50);
    }


    //stroke(173,93,93);
    //strokeWeight(4);
    //noFill();
    //arc(150, 195, 50, 50, 50, 40);

    //strokeWeight(3);
    //arc(120, 135, 30, 50, 10, QUARTER_PI);
    //arc(180, 135, 30, 50, 10, QUARTER_PI);

      //  fill(250, 243,221); // eyes
 //   ellipse(120, 142, 30, 20);
  //  ellipse(180, 142, 30,20);
  //  fill(198, 136, 99); // eye smile skin color

    //fill(198, 136, 99); // eye smile skin color
    //ellipse(120, 165, 45, 20);
    //ellipse(180, 165, 45,20);