Category: LookingOutwards-06

Looking outwards 06: Randomness

Work title: Generative Illustrations of the Human Form [Papilarnie II]

Designer: Janusz Jurek

Work Link: https://www.behance.net/januszjurek

Jurek is a Polish designer who focuses on transforming human forms into 3D generative art that is constructed with entangling strings. After creating this series of works, he stated, “Human body has always been the most popular subject in a drawing. Generative art is about motion, and the human body is about motion, even motionless. It has a complicated nervous system and blood vessels, which work all the time like wires. The way it works is the greatest wonder of nature.” In his works, there are no specific rules for how the wires are displayed on canvas. Instead, it is through a more randomized layering of these wires that creates depth and tension. In programming wise, I assume there is a primary path set for the computer to draw over many times (the densest layer), and all other lines are generated randomly on the canvas either by controlling the mouse or not. I also like how the artist is portraying only a partial body on the canvas because this allows the viewer to imagine the narrative of the drawing differently through blank spaces. 

Looking Outwards 06: Randomness

https://www.artnome.com/news/2018/8/8/why-love-generative-art

Lillian Schwartz

Pixillation, photographic film stills

1970

The works by Lillian Schwartz can be considered an excellent example of the computational art that applies “randomness”. Lilian is one of the first groups of artists that started to use “computers” to help them generate artwork.

Using computer bases, the works show great randomness but high consistency. Each segment of the diagrams is different to a certain degree, but the overall effects created by the various elements form a very balanced composition. The use of black and white also creates great contrasts to make the geometric shapes more prominent, which are amazing examples of the use of figures and ground.

If take a closer look, you will find that the four pictures are somewhat correlated with each other. The top left can be considered the first version because the shapes are simpler and the forms are more regular–mainly the laying of white squares and black rectangles. The bottom left and bottom right can be considered the second version–the shapes are merging to form more complicated forms, with the bottom left looking more flat and neat and the bottom right looking more three-dimensional because of the overlaying of squares. The top right can be considered the later version because it looks like the designer is trying to make the forms of the merging parts of the squares more irregular and curved.

Looking Outwards 06 

Randomness 

E

For this I look at art by Christopher Hanusa. Christopher Hanusa is not an artist, but a mathematician. He makes computational art using math and brings it to life with 3D printing. He first makes a model himself and uses computation to make variations. These variations might not be truly random due to the set parameters, but they do occur at random intervals. Personally, I like that although these forms are technically produced with sophisticated tech, he likes fun colors, and this has become one of his signatures. He doesn’t just use randomness because he knows how, but believes it says something beautiful about the nature of life, uniqueness, and chance. Although each is generated with random factors, he goes through many different variations and chooses his favorites. This interaction became an important fingerprint of the artist’s likes and esthetic ideas. I am very curious to know  if his other non-chosen models are just as  “perfect”. 

https://gallery1064.com/collections/christopher-hanusa-solo-show

LO 06: Design 3-1. Data 4, 5, 6, 6, 6 by Hiroshi Kawano – 1964

Design 3-1. Data 4, 5, 6, 6, 6

Hiroshi Kawano was a Japanese philosopher who approached the field of digital art through philosophy. His generative artwork is based out of Mondrian using probabilistic methods of computation. In one of his works titled – Design 3-1. Data 4, 5, 6, 6, 6; also known as 2nd order color Markov chain, Kawano used a Japanese OKITAC 5090A computer which generated black and white print over which Kawano applied colors by hand. One thing that is interesting in works are the mutability of the Mondrian paintings through coding and randomizing the interrelationship of patterns. On the other hand, this makes me wonder about deterministic and indeterministic approaches.

Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Photo: Tom Hahn

Looking Outward – 06 – aarnavp

//Aarnav Patel
//aarnavp@andrew.cmu.edu
//Section D
//Looking Outwards

One random computational graphics project that really impressed me is the work of Anders Hoff in the piece A Tangle of Webs. While there is definitely the employment of certain algorithms, the start of the piece is created from scattering random vertices around the canvas. The preceding formula then uses a recursive method to track intersections of lines connecting these vertices, ultimately resulting in the organic web-like structure. The resulting form is also inspired by elastic bands, as they model certain interactions between adjacent nodes to create the elastic materiality effect.

What I especially appreciate about this piece is how natural the integration with technology and graphics was undertaken. The potential for this type of piece is even noted for how it can be applied in a 3D sphere. It really connects with some of the projects we do in class, as we can somehow create this generalized algorithms from a basis of random points, alluding to the mathematical concepts underlying randomness.

https://inconvergent.net/2019/a-tangle-of-webs/

anabelle’s blog 06

One work of random art that I enjoy is the infinite biome generation of Minecraft. Minecraft can create infinte, borderless worlds filled with a plethora of biomes, structures, and landforms. In my opinion, Minecraft’s unlimited ability to generate unique world after unique world is what keeps it at the top of the gaming market. From observation, I think Minecraft uses perlin noise/randomness to generate its biomes — none of the scenery changes feel jarring and the game has an overall organic, natural feeling to it. I just find it really cool that Minecraft is able to randomize SO many elements to bring together an organized, cohesive piece. For example, it doesn’t just randomize whether it’ll generate an ocean biome or desert biome; the biomes themselves have randomly generated elements so no two oceans are alike. Furthermore, Minecraft stores each generated “seed” or world so they can be reaccessed for whoever wants to explore a specific world. Minecraft never lets its audience become bored by constantly adding new, consistently creative randomized events that give the joy of open-world exploration with each play.

Some cool minecraft worlds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFHj4E_1o6E&ab_channel=Minecraft%26Chill

(Like, can you believe these seeds spawned naturally, rather than a player going in and building the biome themself? It’s so cool!)

Looking Outwards-06

Tyler Hobbs: CARELESS AND WELL-INTENTIONED #1

Tyler Hobbs is a visual artist who works with code to create digital drawings which he will also sometimes plot or paint. All of his works use computer algorithms he develops. Within these algorithms, Hobbs programs in an amount of randomness. What I find interesting about Hobbs’s work is the partnership he develops with the computer. When he begins his work, he does not have a final goal in mind, together with the randomness of the program he develops, the artwork becomes a journey. The randomness of the work is not pure randomness, but rather it is refined and becomes more refined as Hobbs works with it.

https://tylerxhobbs.com/process
https://tylerxhobbs.com/works/2022/careless-and-well-intentioned

Looking Outwards 06: Randomness

Creator’s name: Wenran Zhao
Title of work: Random waLK & particles, vehicles system
Year of Creation: Unknown

This series of artwork uses randomness to create captivating variations of protrusions that resemble squid tentacles. I love the motion depicted in these pieces and the water-like and fluid quality that they have. The computation relies on wavy lines that extrude from a center-horizontal line of the canvas made up of random strings of yellow and blue as well as a circle spread across the canvas. I highly doubt that these works are generated in a “truly” random sense since it is much more likely that a sequence with certain bounds is used to generate these variations. I believe it is so as a result of the loose observable pattern or similar quality from one piece to the other. The artist’s artistic sensibilities portray a very fun and playful essence.

Some artworks from the series

Randomness – TheUnthoughts

LO6: Random Computational Art

the computational art using randomness that i’m interested in is Wired0513 by deskriptiv.
In this work, the artist uses random lines and curves to form unique patterns that look like weaving wires. Inside those random wires, we can recognize the “0513” texts formed by the wires.

This is very interesting because the artist uses randomness in exploring the uncertainty of how a line will go and where it’s going, but also controlling them by creating a text from it. I think the author first define the text that occupies a certain part of the space in the whole canvas, and then when the line goes by, it just goes around the text rather than across it. This is similar to some kind of ant marching movement, so I think part of the inspiration comes from the nature as well.

This artwork using randomness is also inspiring for architecture work. We usually deal with different landscapes, so this randomness can help us generate different complicated contours and lanscapes, so that we can find some parts where we can build houses.

link here

Looking Outward – 06

John Cage had this exhibition in Cambridge. He was known for his different kinds of music and his 1952 composition in which his music was so random. He also used randomness in his hard and it determined his entire exhibition from which stones were chosen to what would be painted around the stones. He also used computer generated coordinates to determine the heights and positions of the pictures while also using a random process to add and remove different pieces during the exhibition as well!

This is important because it starts talking about how certain artists can afford to give up control so he uses computation as a way to make “no mistakes”. Everything has a purpose even if its randomness.

Sometimes randomization also came from solutions. This stained glass window was actually created as a solution to a Sudoku puzzle. So, broken down by row and column, it’s solutions defined the color and types of the stained window.

https://understandinguncertainty.org/node/1066