LookingOutwards-02 – Page 2 – [OLD SEMESTER] 15-104 • Introduction to Computing for Creative Practice

Looking Outwards 02

Looking Outwards 02
What this project impressed me with is how this algorithm abstracts the real pictures into a more artistic form. Also, with different fitness percentages, users can choose how abstract they want for the output. I think the algorithm of this project is to use different sizes and colors of the polygon to mimic the form of real pictures. Furthermore, since the polygons are overlaying with each other, I think that the transparency of the polygon can also be changed so that it can create a sense of layering effect which is very artistic. The most interesting concept about this project is that the users can choose not only the percentage of fitness they want but also see the gradual change of this process. The artistic essence of this project is using the polygon as a single unit to create the abstract version of the picture since it contains different types of angles, including acute angle, obtuse angle, and right angle. It can create different shapes because of this natural characteristic.

https://alteredqualia.com/visualization/evolve/

Bhaboo’s Looking Outwards

Looking through insanely cool “Johnny Cash Project” was really interesting and fun for me. I admired how it used generative art to create a story told by real people, real fans across the world that were touched by this person. Aaron Koblin and the team were able to create an interactive website that helped make a crops-sourced music video. Any visitor on the website was able to paint their vision on any frame of the music video. This was then turned into an animated music video which garnished many awards and honors. I think it’s interesting to see how generative art can take the place in so many forms. Aaron Koblin is known for his work using data visualization in which he did a phenomenal job with this project remembering a great artist. Something really interesting is that the music video continues to grow as more people continue to participate.

To learn more: Johhny Cash Project

The Johnny Cash Project from Chris Milk on Vimeo.

Looking Outwards _02

Nervous System combines research, computer graphics, and math to produce product design. The things that excites this company are “natural processes that produce complex forms from simple rule sets.” Something I admire about this artists work is the complexity of it while it being somewhat simple. With the repetitive patterns and forms, they’ve been able to take these designs to actual products including rings, metalsmith, and generative art. The rings honestly inspire me because it uses fuse art, science, and technology showing us the real life uses of using generative art. They use a mixture of computation, 3D-Printing and traditional metalsmithing. Further, they also make their jewelry come to life through their complex forms which a lot of the time include forms based on the nervous system of animals, humans. The founder, Jessica Rosenkrantz is also inspiring for her history and background in computing design, architecture, teaching and being a professor at MIT, and programming.

https://n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com/projects/

Looking Outwards 02

Natalie Koch; Section A
Looking Outwards 02

When looking through the different provided examples for this blog, one that really stood out to me was the bird photography done by Erlend Haarberg in https://www.thisiscolossal.com. As someone who has done photography in the past, I know how challenging it can be to capture things in motion, such as birds. There’s a lot of work that needs to go into camera settings to ensure an in focus picture. Setting a camera with the correct settings for pictures like these is an algorithm in itself. When setting a camera, you need to pay attention to things like shutter speed and aperture. The pictures of birds clearly seen flying and the pictures of birds silhouetted against the skyline require different settings, so Haarberg had to have the end result in mind when setting his camera for these shots. All of these pictures are artistic in different ways, so Haarberg had to use his artistic sensibilities to make sure the photos came out the way he wanted them to.

“Rock Ptarmigan Flight”; the award winning picture: https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/bpoty-1.jpg

“Puffin Love”; a silhouette picture: https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/bpoty-7.jpg

Blog – 02

I am most inspired by Frieder Nake’s generative artwork. I admire the sharpness of his work the most because it makes for a very neat finished product that one could admire for hours. Although he mostly uses straight lines and geometric shapes, he also uses layering often to create more dimension in his artwork. Additionally, I enjoy his use of varying colors and stroke weights because when different colors and stroke weights are layered together it introduces a completely new color to the artwork depending on the values of each. Nake uses an algorithmic approach to his computer art, with perhaps some randomness weaved in as well. He identifies as a mathematician, which most likely translates to his work in the form of arithmetic algorithms which he could have imbedded into if-statements, or written by themselves. I suppose Nake used if-statements to determine where to draw the next shape, or where to switch the colors, which might have depended on the position of the shape/color on the page.

By: Katie Makarska

no title 1967 Frieder Nake born 1938 Presented by Tate Members 2013 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/P80817

Blog 02

For this blog, I decided to study the work of Michael Hansmeyer. Specifically, “Subdivided Columns – A New Order (2010)”. For me, the mixture of generative art and architectural forms have always interested me. Generative art and modeling’s ability to create unthinkable forms like the columns he created has been something I’ve explored on my own as an architecture student. I’ve experimented with creating unusual structures and forms that promote different feelings which I can connect with in his project, even if evoking different feelings with the columns was not a primary goal of his. I suppose that to create these bizarre forms, CAD softwares like GrassHopper. While it appears as if a column is put into modeling softwares and randomized, there is actually intentionality behind his results. Based on articles analyzing the project, the purpose of the exploration is to push imagination and create forms that inspires and activates further investigation into specific potentials of the forms with more intentionality, and with that, create these “subclasses” that create more variations of the column with certain constraints and desires.The artist’s artistic choices appears in the project in the forms of very complex geometries and symmetries.

https://www.michael-hansmeyer.com/subdivided-columns

Looking Outwards 02: Generative Art

Link: http://sansumbrella.com/works/2011/drawing-water/
David Wicks
Drawing Water
Spring 2011

I think the project “Drawing Water” by David Wicks is a very impressive and amazing work.

1. Regarding the project, what do you admire about it, and why do you admire these aspects of it?

Firstly, on the aspects of aesthetics, the works are very visually impressive and pleasing. The images have so many details–The strokes are so delicate and look like the strokes of pencils. The combination of colors, shades and the background is very comfortable as well–blue and white, or blue and black. They present the pattern of the flow of water nicely. What’s more, what makes it admirable is that the visual representations are dynamic. That is to say, the patterns or colors can change according to the amount of rainfall.

2. What do you know (or what do you suppose) about the algorithm that generated the work?

The algorithm that the artist used is related to water resources (“the amount of rainfall”, “where waterfalls” and “where it is consumed within the United States”). The further the rainfall, the darker or whiter the color.

3. In what ways are the creator’s artistic sensibilities manifest in their algorithm?

The paths are created based on real-life data of waterfalls, but the creator also adds his imagination when trying to show the pattern of the flow of water. That is to say, David Wicks turns the data of rainfalls into visual representations–by showing the flowing patterns of water and showing the number of rainfalls through those beautiful lines.

Looking Outwards – Holger Lippmann

The art series I was most intrigued by was noiseScape IV by Holger Lippmann (2021).

link to website: http://www.lumicon.de/wp/?p=3914

This series of generative art is simple in the way its structured visually, but its still very interesting. The first thing that sticks out to me is the fact that each piece is stratified into horizontal layers. In each layer are squiggly vertical lines. The way the vertical lines are drawn reminds me of a cascading hilly landscape.

In some of the pieces I notice that some areas of the canvas are left blank which create cloud like shapes that float around on the canvas.

I’m not sure how it would have been coded but I’d guess that
the artist maybe defined the boundaries of each layer and the
computer “semi randomly” drew lines between those boundaries. The reason why I say “semi randomly” is because there seems to be a logic behind how each lines are drawn after all each line somewhat follows the path of the adjacent lines. The artist must’ve also defined the colors as the colors of the lines are harmonious.

Looking Outwards 02: Generative Art

Transiterate
Holger Lippman
2022

Spring Storm
Holger Lippman
2020-2021

The projects I have chosen are Holger Lippmann’s “Transiterate” (2022) and “Spring Storm” (2020-2021). “Transiterate” is an animated looping NFT consisting of 100 individual unique frames. Lippmann’s site describes it as “a gradual, repeating subdivision (iteration) of rhythmically consecutive color tables”, which translates to a large circle with constantly shifting and transforming subdivisions whose coloring move up and down the color wheel.

Meanwhile, “Spring Storm” is a series of prints composed of red and white swirls on a wavy background. The compositions were generated via layered Perlin noise, resulting in a highly dynamic yet varied series of artworks. The integration of code and other digital means as a core part of a lucrative artistic workflow is highly admirable.

Lippmann’s work is described as falling “somewhere in between artistic disassociation and realistic reproduction, between old values and modern perspectives”. His abstract compositions are reminiscent of the atmosphere and sensorial experience of various natural phenomena. He incorporates various algorithms, particularly RNG, which allows him to instantly generate “an abundance of possibilities”, which he feels is missing in traditional forms of media.

Links:
https://holgerlippmann.io/
https://www.lumas.com/artist/holger_lippmann/
http://e-art.co/

Looking Outwards-02

I admire the Flow Fields, reinterpretation of Vincent van Gogh’s most famous works, by LIA in 2018. I like how it takes such a famous artwork, my favorite is the Sunflower reinvention, and puts a unique spin on it because of the artist’s sensibilities. In the case of the sunflowers, it is how the lines move and flow as if they are blossoming. The blossoming movement is the artist’s variation on the original Sunflower’s lines but through a generative art technique called vector fields or flow fields. This technique reveals lines and loops that happen in magnetic and energy fields. There are endless variations to the ways the lines can move. The artist also uses Van Gogh’s color palette as a base to try to bring the viewer closer to the original. I also admire how different sections of the work can go through different motions at the same time. The timing of this and how each movement goes together with the others to form the larger picture is part of how the artist comes through in the work. However, I think there was still more room for the artist to add in their own personality. Perhaps by changing up the variations of the lines.

LIA | Flow Field #2 – Reinterpreting Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gogh | Sedition (seditionart.com)