Looking Alp-wards

Leander Herzog’s “Alp” (2021) is a browser-based program that presents an “alpine” landscape of (presumably) randomly generated shapes. It layers 6-7 coordinated colors in a random yet recognizable landscape form, which is simple yet beautiful to me. The colors are especially eye-catching, and I wonder if they are determined by the same code used by color swatch-generating sites like Coolors and Adobe Color.

Both the colors and the shapes of the “rocks” seem to be generated concurrently and randomly. Perhaps the shapes are polygons with constrained coordinates that change whenever the function repeats itself. The ellipse in the top left “sky” area doesn’t change in placement or diameter, but its color changes to fit the palette.

Herzog’s other work generally seems to share the “less is more” ideology. Many of his other algorithms use only 2 colors and simple geometry that reacts to mouse clicks and movement. The graphics are so mesmerizing, I could play around with them for hours, and I think you all should too!