Maps & Networks #6: Looking at Generative Art

As our world transitions in to a more digital state, forms of art have also transitioned capturing our new age. Using computing and coding, you can create algorithms which create unique works of art every time due to its complete randomness. It draws from modern art and is mostly very geometrical. I was particularly drawn to this computer aesthetic because I wanted to look at how I could put a human memory (maybe in an image form like a series of photos) and how could I then use this to generate some sort of replica of a memory using machinery. 

KEY POINTS:

- code making art

- often geometrical

- generating shapes, patterns, colours, movements

- follows instructions/rules

- artificial serendipity

- surrealism, futurism and dadaism

-autonomous machines

MARK J. STOCK

http://markjstock.com/

I came across Mark J. Stock whilst exploring more about this art form online. He is an artist, scientist and programmer and explores the tension between nature world and simulations, looking at organic and inorganic, the digital and the analogue.

Sprawl  by Mark J. Stock

His piece, Sprawl depicts dark rooting  structure that spreads and branches out over an array of white blocks. This is stimulated by using a surface growth algorithm which takes the dark roots on a random walk creating more and more root like structures. The piece really reminds me of the human venous system and lightning and the fact that a computer can generate such a natural, organic structure is incredible. I like the ability of using a formula which is unnatural to recreate and represent the same natural patterns across the world.

As mentioned in a previous blog. most of Refik Anadol's work is also generative art. He worked with many neuroscientists to produce them. This idea was also coming up a lot on my instagram as there were lots of work recommended to me that was generative art. I got in contact with some one who had been creating generative art and they suggested that I looked at a YouTube page called The Coding Train which uses the software called Processing which uses code within the context of visual art.

The Coding Train: https://www.youtube.com/user/shiffman 

However, completely unaware at how long the process of learning and understanding the language would be I came to the realisation during the Christmas holiday that I would need a lot more time to get my head wrapped around it and then use it to create what I wanted. So from here I realised that I needed to approach my idea from a different angle and maybe look at other works that explore memory and AI. 

Although this will take me a while to master and I wont be using this process or the Processing software for this project, I am really interested in exploring generative art and probably will carry on doing the tutorials from the coding train and see where it takes me.