LookingOutwards-02 – [OLD SEMESTER] 15-104 • Introduction to Computing for Creative Practice

Looking Outwards – 02

The series of pieces I’m writing about is Mitchell Whitelaw’s ‘Limits to Growth’, a series of visual patterns made with a generative AI demonstrating a growth’s ability to limit itself through creating patterns that create a final piece that visually looks ‘whole’. While I know very little on how the artwork was made, I can hypothesize that a draw function creates a mass of lines that curve in certain patterns, with a constraint that if a line is too close to intercepting another line, the line will stop expanding. I enjoy how artistically, it doesn’t have to be known that AI generated this artwork, it could be a print that simply looks visually appealing, and mysteriously calculated.

https://mtchl.net/limits-to-growth/

Looking Outwards -02

The series of works I picked is “Quantum Superpositions” made by Markos Kay. These generative art pieces were created using a simulation that is inspired by the events in the Large Hadron Collider, but all the imagery is original and not actual images from the Collider. The artist used an original simulator to generate the images and then superimposed them on each other to represent different quantum properties.

I find this piece to be really interesting because of the interdisciplinary nature combining aspects of quantum mechanics and digital art. These pieces come together in a way that is visually striking, especially considering the complexity and randomness of the generated images that are overlayed.

Markos Kay’s body of work is composed of mostly video art which differs from this series of stills. While the stills are all pulled from video simulations, the intricacies of the particle interactions and the complicated quantum mechanics are better represented in the superimposed images that the artist has created.

Link to the artist’s website: https://www.mrkism.com/superpositions.html

l.o. 02: generative art

‘variations on a definition’ by poet and programmer allison parrish is a series of poems that were produced by breaking words down into numbers that correspond to their constituent sounds using a stats-based model of the english language. the program then automatically mixes and recombines these numbers to blur and corrupt the original phonetic features of the words used in the poems.

I admire how this project makes use of algorithmically-defined representation to highlight the malleability of language over space and time, especially in the context of the social internet and postmodern poetics. it’s a precise and elegant way to confuse language, which falls in line with parrish’s research on contemporary use of language at NYU.

ultrablack-LookingOutwards-02

In the second week, I already found I made progress. Last week the program I wrote has some problems, I spent hours to looks at it and trying to debug still did not work. This week open that program again and immediately saw what the problem was.

In this week’s project, I found the most challenging part is to connect the artistic idea to the code – in what way do I choose to realize it? It’s almost like creating a machine and a system or thinking of myself’s thinking. Or like navigation, looking at the map and figuring out how to go to my destination. Sometimes I have to create my own pathway.

Looking at Leander Herzog‘s website, I am fascinated by how much computers can generate and we call it art. I found the interactive art approach interesting. It’s important to think about the way people interact – is it by moving the mouse, by pressing the mouse (in the condition of giving them a mouse and a screen); by touching, by looking at the camera, or by speaking to a microphone… And how do we suggest they to do so? By using visual implications in order to stimulate their curiosity?

Currently, I’m glad that I know how to make a program that captures mouse movement. But other skills still need to be learned.

And most significant to think – in your generative art, is it a pure image, for the sake of visual effect, or it embeds some other information, or do you endow it a meaning? And do you come up with an idea and then create a program accordingly to realize your idea; or do you create a visual effect and then associate a meaning? What’s your intention? What’s the relationship between you and the image you create? Both ways for me makes sense and feels equal to me. But important to think about.

Looking Outward-02

I was inspired by Frederik Vanhoutte’s generative art. I’m someone who really loves color and lights so I love how his art incorporates in an illusion of “light” through the use of colors. I think I’m drawn to it because it is interesting how light is really just the use of contrasting colors and also certain shades or colors. He also makes the circle look spherical through the use of perspective even though the shape is really 2D on my computer.

I specifically looked at piece 653 from this archive:
https://winterbloed.be/instagram-archive-2021-part-ii/#&gid=1&pid=653

I don’t know the algorithm that generated the work. However, I suppose he used many thin arcs to create that spherical effect. He also knew how to color the different lines to give it that effect of light. His artistic knowledge is shown in this through that use of persepecitve and the colors he chooses.

This is what the piece looks like

Frederik Vanhoutte, 2021

LO2 Generative Puzzles

The piece of work that I find super interesting is a series of generative jigsaw puzzles from the site called “Nervous System”

https://n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com/shop/line.php?code=12/

This project was created by two MIT designers who wanted to put a spin on traditional puzzles. These puzzles are created uniquely with custom software which makes the design of the puzzle super intricate, as well as the actual jig-saw pieces themselves. THe pieces are shaped but using natural patterns which are generatively produced, ultimately making these puzzles a bit more challenging than a typical jig-saw puzzle. Although puzzles may be boring for some, I enjoy solving puzzles and these generative puzzles would be even more stimulating. The software that creates the interlocking pieces is based off of a crystal growth process called “dendritic solidification”. This process in an art form becomes quite complex, because in nature, a crystal would grow in one direction; however, for the puzzle, the software must make one puzzle piece that “grows”, and another symmetric piece that matches each extension piece. Additionally, the software has different designs for different states of matter, creating different sort of crystal formations for different puzzles. Based on this, I would assume that the creates are interested in nature, science, and geology as well as programming. Overall, I am very fascinated and impressed with the complexity of this software, and it also has a fun benefit!

Here is an example of one of the puzzles

Generative Art

One of the artworks that I admire is “Waves: The Abiotechnogenesis Collection”. The artist, Memo Akten finds his inspiration in nature and for this piece, his inspiration was the ocean. The ocean has existed since the beginning of time. Water is important for survival and life, people used the ocean to travel to new places, and it is where life started. I appreciated that Akten uses nature as his inspiration for computational art because it shows that nature has certain patterns and rules to it and that it follows its own function, even if that pattern can’t be immediately recognizable. When people think of nature, most people think of randomness, organic shapes that don’t follow patterns, and overall chaos, especially when it comes to the ocean. However, in reality, that might not be the case. Akten’s work reflects how nature isn’t just chaos. The artist used machine learning artificial intelligence algorithms to help create this piece. It is where AI predicts the output by given inputs. In this case, the input might have been data about wave patterns and the output would have been the waves in the artwork and the variations.

Memo Akten, Waves: The Abiotechnogenesis Collection (2021)

https://www.memo.tv/works/waves-the-abiotechnogenesis-collection/

Looking Outwards 02: Generative Art

Leander Herzog’s project “Radar” really captivated me in terms of color and movement. I admire the split screen of blue and pink, along with the asymmetry of the spiraling design. Another component I admire is how the new “spiral” is formed by the vertical edge of the pink spiral. I admire the split screen of color and asymmetrical design because it is mesmerizing visually, but it’s not too simple. I admire the creation of the new spiral from the vertical edge because the split screen tricks the eye into thinking that the spirals are created as a circle, but when you take a moment to look closer, the spirals are not full circles, but rather start as a semicircle and gradually pan out until they disappear off the page.

The only thing that I can identify in this project is the use of a loop, because the design is continuous and keeps generating new spirals that float off of the page.

The creator’s artistic sensibilities manifest in terms of color and shape. Herzog uses very contrasting colors, creating a pop in the eye and easy distinction between the two spiral sections. The shape is continuous, in terms of connecting between the two sections.

Leander Herzog

“Radar”, 2020

https://leanderherzog.ch/2020/radar/

Blog-02 Generative Art

The piece I’ve examined in the noise series by Holger Lippmann. The first part
of the series, Holger uses landscape photos in his vicinity to generate digital
paintings composed of elongated shapes. What I admire about the piece is
the strategic generative composition that has allowed the rectangular shapes to
mimic textures that of a brushstroke, which gives the painting a vintage feeling
and a sense of movement throughout the canvas. Further, the layering of the
different colors of the geometry and the control of the density of the geometry
creates an illusion of color blending, which I believe has made the painting much
more interesting than if it was just one layer.

What I suppose the algorithm would be the program repeatedly draws the same
elongated rectangle and each geometry would have a small variation in the
start and end coordinates than the previous points to create a continuous
curvature through the straight geometric shapes. The color of the shapes would
be detected from the image itself with minor variations in the RGB value by
around 10-15 to create a variation that would further help simulate the brush
stroke texture.

The artist has taken inspiration from 20th-century impressionist painters such
as Monet and Van Gogh, where from close, the viewer can observe the stacks of
geometry like in paintings one would see the brush stroke but backed up, a
the scenic landscape is formed

Noise Series: http://www.lumicon.de/wp/?p=3623

Blog

Artist:Lia

The most attractive aspects of these works are the vivid variety of colors and how each tone compliments each other, forming patterns that make me think of decorative art. Once painters use to even stick gold to create the golden yellow they were it’s rather interesting how digitally colors are presented compared to hand-worked arts.

This specific work from her installation Summer is composed of colors from imagery of summer; as she describe as blue sea, sand dunes, striped parasols and beach chairs. Using patterns that utilizes stripes, shapes that are made of patches and blocks of colors. The image is a capture of a continuous video that does not repeat but continues to create new random images.

Lia also has 3d installations that bring out code and algorithms into physical products- it is a real ting in real life. I know that the works are rated to minimalist qualities and she codes for her installations or images. The way she cooperates the freeness and fluid characteristic of art works – for example paintings or sketches- along with the structured characteristic of coding seems to bridge between traditional mediums and Digital algorithms.

Additionally, adding sound elements is another dimension to add on art works. It brings in the sensory sound helping to create a mode, reenforcing the impact of an art piece. It isn’t necessarily music of her own creation but is a collaborative act; in this specific work, sound from Damian Stewart.