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About
Don Relyea's Blog

I like to write about interesting art projects, so give me a heads up if you have new project and I'll write about it.


Don Relyea
email:
don(at)donrelyea.com

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Blogs:
Chris Ashley
Tom Moody
BLDG blog
Walker Art Center
turbulence.org
collisiondetection.net
She Dreams in Digital
kevan.org
2blowhards.com
thinking about art
artblog.net
the generator blog
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Bombshell



Agendas Under Fire



110th Assembly


Meret Oppenheim portrait


Image Reconstruction


Ready Made Glitch


Slit Scan 3d Images


Systemic Sky


Slit Scan Photography



Monochrome Generator


Space Filling Curve Art



Hair Particle Drawing

Arts and New Media
Sect of Homokaasu
Roman Verostko
Jared Tarbell
Marius Watz
Juergen Schwietering
MIT Media Lab
eyebeam.org
ARS Electronica
mocoloco.com
rhizome.org
runme.org
core77.com
IAAA
furtherfield.org
Cory Arcangel
Philip Galanter
Roy Stanfield
Adrian Ward
ambienttv.ne
Alex Dragulescu
toxi
generator x
database of virtual art
Blast Theory
Institute for Applied Autonomy
0100101110101101.org
Bathsheba Grossman
Ariel Malka
BLF
Art Crimes
Buff Monster
Hactivist
rtmark
Faile
Mute
Crumb
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Marcel
X257.com
moma
amoda.org
artforum
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neural.it
EFF
{G2}
Kate Armstrong
no-org.net
mnartists.org
Casey Reas
Vlad_Nanca
digitalsouls
Transmediale
Media Art Net
treasurecrumbs
Art Interactive
Electronic Arts Intermix
artsjournal
MTAA
Suzanne G
onreact
Wooster Collective
computergraphica.com
hardisco.com
inhabitat.com
c505
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ultra eczema
Kris Davidson
Robert Spahr
drainmag.com
Thor Johnson

The Digital Postmodern Modernist Generator version 2.0
This project has expanded to explore automating the artist's design process in a lighthearted manner. Click here for the main project page.

A shockwave version of the art generator version 2 is here (opens in new window 38k) for your endless enjoyment.

First of all, automating the processes exactly that an artist does while creating a piece of artwork is nearly an impossible task. Artists typically are inspired by a variety of things and their creativity generally follows intuition more than a set process. Differences in how artists perceive their subject matter and the choices they make while rendering their works create endless controlled variations in output. The best we can hope to do with an computer emulated artist process is going to be an approximation of a set of potential artist creative paths that lead to a graphic result.

As we add logic to the decision algorithms, add chaos to the system and increase the set of systemic processes available to the emulated artist, the possible set of paths and subsequent results will approach infinity. It will by no means consistently generate better looking designs than a real human will, however it will generate good output fairly often and much faster than a real human artist can.

For the purposes of this project we will simplify the process to a set style of abstract modernist for now. We will focus on automating the color choices, subject matter, layout, image manipulation and the abstraction process in the digital environment using mostly processes that a digital artist would use. Digital processes in the digital realm are convenient since emulating actual drawing or painting processes would require robotics. If you are interested in algorithmic robotic art you should check out one of the very first artists to attempt algorithmic work using programmable eproms and crude robotics in the 80's Roman Verostko's work. I think the future of algorithmic robotic art lies in nanotechnology but alas that is another project. While the program generates abstract modernist looking output the overall concept of creating an automated artist process is somewhat of a postmodern concept, hence the title "Postmodern Modernist Generator".

The Process behind version 2 is different and better (at least I think it is), version 1 sampled bit mapl bitmap, version 2 is 100% generative. The first thing the program does is load a color lookup table of color palettes with 6 colors each (fig 1). Most of the color combinations are sampled from artist and color theorist Josef Albers works and works by other artists that I admire. However I fully intend to write a palette generator that will always select colors that work well together based on modern color theory like the web color selector at wellstyled.com.

fig 1

fig 2

fig 3

fig 4

final output

The engine then generates a 3d virtual world, populates it with primitive objects and assigns them shaders from the current loaded palette. This takes care of the general layout and also creates some volumetric shapes and lines that can work their way into the design. The program then extracts the image from the 3d objects (fig 2 above). A decision tree determines how the image is deconstructed and reconstructed (fig 3 above). The decision tree spawns graphic layers in memory much like layers in Photoshop and manipulates them before merging them into one image layer. This process iterates a couple of times randomly choosing various manipulation processes and blending effects then all resulting layers are then randomly assigned a stacking order and lastly they are merged ( sample layer fig 4 above). Finally rectangular shapes are drawn in the foreground and randomly assigned a blend and the process is complete(final output above).

When the graphic processes are complete the program assigns the work a title by combining a noun, an adjective and a random number attempting in futility to assign meaning to the work. While this is a trivial task to program it is an important step in the process of creating a modernist work since modernism seeks to make sense out of the senseless and impose meaning through art where there is none.

A shockwave version of the art generator version 2 is here (opens in new window 38k) for your endless enjoyment.

New gallery up! The Digital Postmodern modernist gallery 2! These 44 images were automatically generated in not a lot of time for your viewing pleasure.

Ace Earthly #109

Affection Muddled #469

Allegory Gaudy #777

Batch Accidental #647

[/art] permanent link