Post on 21-Dec-2015
Generative Arts & Literature:an overview
SM2220CIL core: a concept-driven studio class
Dr. Linda LaiSpring 2010
Week 1-2
This course has FOUR main purposes:
1. to provide an overview and historical survey of generative art and literature in order to develop the concept of generative systems and their relevance to new media creative context
2. to conduct an in-depth case study on the Potential Literature of the Oulipo group and its expanded practices
3. to examine the definitions and variety of “rules” and “rule-making”
4. to develop problem solving skills for generative art via code-writing
Re-creating Mondrian
Analysis of a painting by Piet Mondrian
What questions we often ask about a painting do not apply to this situation?
What new, production questions are relevant?
Re-creating Mondrian
Imagine we are asking someone to make an exact copy of the above painting by telling the person exactly what to do step by step ...
What steps would you lay down for someone to reproduce many different Mondrian-like paintings?
Collective improvisation
Turning a painting into a generator...
Exploring the generative potentials of a painting via the use of rules...
The rule:
Ask questions about this painting,
apply divergent thinking,
exhaust all the possible questions you can think of...
Rules
Rules delimit (constrain) AND enable...
Rules are used to organize parts (units into a whole...
*unpredictable outcome
*Creativity has to do with inventing and reinventing rules in a playful spirit
Rules
Simple rules can generate many different images.
Generative Art [G.A.] often depends on the power of REPETITION.
GA often has a strong sense of order, similar to the growth of an organism.
Analysis of Mondrian’s paintings
• Rules
• Constraints
• Freedom/inventiveness within limit
• Process / steps / algorithms
• Surprises, amazement
• Simple rule/simple unit complexity
Rules? Types of rules?
• Rules are delimiting/restricting as well as enabling/opening up
• Types of “rules”…rules
-that govern the forward movement of the action (keeps the work going)
-that govern individual actions
-that explores the step-between-step design
-Rules about rules, e.g. cyclic repetition, reversal, distribution, recursion, iteration
Generative Art
Self multiplication
Self organization
Single unit complex system
Simplicity complexity
Rule applicationCombinatorial / permutation / algorithm / emergence
Generative Art
Concern for…
New methods of composition…
Methods that allow a work to grow in scope and abundance
Generative Art: an initial case for review
Gego (German born female artist residing in Venezuela)
Lines …planes …objects …environment
Triangles… Squares… Spheres
Triangles into netsTriangles forming circular planesTriangles into cylinders and tubular structuresTriangles forming spheresSquares into sheetsSquares into netsSquare as frames…
Generative Art: an initial case for review
Gego (German born female artist residing in Venezuela)
Anti-sculpture…
“I still dislike the word ‘sculpture’. They are not sculptures.” (referring to her works)
Dictionary definitions, she pointed out, describe sculpture as any assembled objects.
She felt such a definition does not sufficiently cover her works – mainly jointed pieces and structures.
Her intention was not only form and volume, but transparent structure.
***She emphasizes she never made sketches of her work…
Generative Art: an initial case for review
Bernd & Hilla Becher
Generative thinking in field photography
Four decades:
photographing and classifying the industrial structures that are even now vanishing from the modern landscape...
What is Generative Art?
Generative Art performs the idea as process.
Rules as constraint produce a somewhat automatic process.
Rules are used to ensure the next possible step forward.
GA begs the question of what’s possible & what is virtual
What is Generative Art?
Generative Art performs the idea as process.
Rules as constraint produce a somewhat automatic process.
Rules are used to ensure the next possible step forward.
The intricacies of a GA work often lie in the rational relation between each two steps + the leaps-and-bounds differences at the end of a sequence of operations.
Generative Art?
To generate = to produce, to bring into existence, to bring forward, to present to view or notice…
Generative = capable of producing
Generative procedural, serialist
Generative Visual Arts
TWO kinds of generative systems in 20th-C art history (Diane Kirkpatrick):
(1) Close generative systems:
[e.g. conceptual art]
in each work a closed analytic structure is set up which becomes a generator for exploration
Generative Visual Arts
TWO kinds of generative systems in 20th-C art history (Diane Kirkpatrick):
(2) Organic generative systems:
A work begins with creating one word or idea and uses that to generate the next, and the next and so on…(creating generators)
a poem by 鄭愁於
• 我打江南走過• 那等在季節裏的容顏如蓮花的開落• 東風不來,三月的柳絮不飛• 你底心如小小寂寞的城• 恰若青石的街道向晚• 足音不響,三月的春帷不揭• 你底是小小的窗扉緊掩• 我達達的馬蹄是美麗的錯誤• 我不是歸人,是個過客。
a poem by 鄭愁於 digitized by Bryan Chung• 我打江南走過• 那等在季節裏的容顏如蓮花的開落• 東風不來,三月的柳絮不飛• 你底心如小小寂寞的城• 恰若青石的街道向晚• 足音不響,三月的春帷不揭• 你底是小小的窗扉緊掩• 我達達的馬蹄是美麗的錯誤• 我不是歸人,是個過客。
http://www.bryanchung.net/?p=247
Generative Visual Arts: work examples
Josef Albers:(1) “Homage to Square” series (1950s)
Frank Stella:(2) “Protractor Series” (93 paintings based on 31 canvas formats each with 3 compositional types)
Sol LeWitt:(3) “Squares with Corners Torn off” (1975) X(4) “Modular Open Cube”
Generative Visual Arts: work examples
Dorothea Rockburne:
(5) “Set” (1970) – inspiration from Mathematics
(6) “Radiant and Fields” (1971) – concept of units becoming more complex X
(7) “Drawing That Makes Itself” (1973) X
Jennifer Bartlett:
(8) “Rhapsody” (1975-76)
Generative Visual Arts: work examples
Doug Huebler:
(9) “Duration Piece No. 6” (NY, 4/1969) – photo series X
(10) “Location Piece No. 6” (1970) X
(11) “Duration Piece No. 7”
(12) “Location Pieces No. 7”
Generative Visual Arts: work examples
Sonia Sheridan:
(13) mono-prints series based on one image (1963-64)
(14) “Unwind the Wheel of Time” (1979) – eight drawings X
TAKE-HOME ASSIGNMENT
• Generative drawings:
• Make 5 drawings, each containing:– a circle
– a stick-man– a tree
– a square– Record the rules you've used and
developed
Sequence and series
SequenceOrder of arrangement: what comes become and what
comes after…
SeriesThe possible formations of elements based on rules of
selection and combination… [refer to game we played in class]
Algorithms: procedures in computing
Algorithm is the systematic procedures that computer science adopts to final correct solution to complex problems.
Algorithm is a procedure for solving a problem in terms of:
1) the actions to execute
2) the order in which these actions execute
Algorithms: actions in order
“rise-and-shine algorithm”[source: H.M. Deitel & P.J. Deitel (2005), C++: How to Program 5th edition, p. 121]
(1) Get out of bed
(2) Take off pajamas
(3) Take a shower
(4) Get dressed
(5) Eat breakfast
(6) Drive to workConsider other sequencing possibilities and the qualitative change in
narrative meaning, e.g.:
(1) – (2) – (4) – (3) – (5) – (6)
An illustration of Recursion
Recursion is one class of algorithms
Recursion: the process of solving a large problem by reducing it to one or more sub-problems which are:
(1) Identical in structure to the original problems; and
(2) Simpler to solve
An illustration of Recursion
How to collect $1000 in a fundraising event in which coupons are printed at $1 per piece:
One way to do it is to find one person who can donate the total amount…
[Source: Eric S. Roberts (1986), Thinking Recursively, pp. 1-4]
How to collect $1000
One way to do it is to use an iterative solution:
[Pascal-like language]
PROCEDURE COLLECTION
1000;
BEGIN FOR 1 := 1 TO
1000 DO
Collect one dollar from
person I
END;
[Actionscript]
For (i=1; i<=1000; i+
+)
operation performed
Initial value
condition (the loop
will continue to execute until
the condition is false)
How to collect $1000: a recursive solution
Principle:
to break down the problem into identical, sub-problems that are simple to solve
Enlist 10 people, each in charge of raising $100.
Each person asked 10 volunteers who will raise $10 each.
Each volunteer will find 10 others who agree to raise $1.
How to collect $1000: a recursive solution
The use of recursion here is a “divide-and-conquer” method.
The original problem divides to form several simpler sub-problems, which branch into a set of simpler ones…until the simple cases [the simplest case(s), base case(s)]
How to collect $1000: recursive solution
[Pascal-like language]
PROCEDURE COLLECTION
(N);
BEGIN
IF N is $1 THEN
Contribute the
dollar directly
ELSE
BEGIN
Find 10 people;
Have each collect
N/10 dollars;
Return the money
to your superior
END
END;
[Actionscript]
??????
More illustrations on the use of Recursion
Mondrian-like computer art
1907-1914: Cubism (a modern art movement) flourished in Paris
[nature should be represented in terms of its primitive geometrical components, e.g. cylinders, cones, spheres
etc.]The Cubist community was dissolved at the outbreak of
WWI ideas influenced and shaped the development of abstract art, e.g. works of Piet Mondrian, characterized by rigid patterning of vertical and horizontal lines.
Iteration? Recursion?
There’s a Hole in the Bucket
There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza
There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, a hole
Then fix it, dear Charlie, dear Charlie
Then fix it, dear Charlie, dear Charlie, fix it
With what shall I fix it, dear Liza, dear Liza
With a straw, dear Charlie, dear Charlie
But the straw is too long, dear Liza, dear Liza
Then cut it, dear Charlie, dear Charlie
With what shall I cut it, dear Liza, dear Liza
With a knife, dear Charlie, dear Charlie
Iteration? Recursion?
There’s a Hole in the Bucket (cont’d)
But the knife is too dull, dear Liza, dear LizaThen sharpen it, dear Charlie, dear Charlie
With what shall I sharpen it, dear Liza, dear LizaWith a stone, dear Charlie, dear Charlie
But the stone is too dry, dear Liza, dear LizaThen wet it, dear Charlie, dear Charlie
With what shall I wet it, dear Liza, dear LizaWith water, dear Charlie, dear Charlie
But how shall I fetch it, dear Liza, dear LizaIn a bucket, dear Charlie, dear Charlie
There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza,There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, a hole
What is Generative Art?
Generative Art performs the idea as process.
Rules as constraint produce a somewhat automatic process.
Rules are used to ensure the next possible step forward.
GA begs the question of what’s possible & what is virtual
What is Generative Art?
Generative Art performs the idea as process.
Rules as constraint produce a somewhat automatic process.
Rules are used to ensure the next possible step forward.
The intricacies of a GA work often lie in the rational relation between each two steps + the leaps-and-bounds differences at the end of a sequence of operations.
Generative Art?
To generate = to produce, to bring into existence, to bring forward, to present to view or notice…
Generative = capable of producing
Generative procedural, serialist
Generative Systems?
…a system capable of functioning with generative forces…
…a system that imposes a structure on something that is very lively, viable and fluid…
Generators
What does it mean to say that something is (serves the functions of) a generator?
e.g.:when is an apple just an apple?
when is an apple a generator?
Generators
A generator can be thought of as a unit capable of producing…
Anything can become a generator when…
*it is turned into a principle for more productive activities…
*it is studied for its ability to push forward the production of the next possible members…
Generators
Generators can be…A key word
An objectA name
A graphic element (point, line, shape etc.)A fragment of a story
A narrativeA dramatic structure
…….
More principles of generation (generative operation)
Generation at the formal level
Generation at the structural level
Discussion…
[works]
Bernd and Hilla Becher (Germany) photo series – topologies, repetitive architectural permutations in photo sequence / formal generative system
Lew Thomas (San Francisco, US)
photo series – collage compilation, photo sequence / structural generative
system http://www.lewthomas.com/index.htm
Discussion…
[works]
Sol LeWitt
Betty Collings: Topological “model”
-a process in which the artist uses topological geometry to transform a minimal organic shape into multiple, biomorphic, inflatable forms; combining and juxtaposing forms to produce sets and subsets
http://www.lewthomas.com/index.htm
THREE phases of procedural evolvement towards a complex system
[1st phase:]
Design of structuring device:
rules +procedures
[2nd phase:]
Spatial extension + establishment of networks
[3rd phase:]
Genetic code of artificial units
rules + procedures
Rules…
- Based on sources that are outside of the work itself
- Based on factors embedded in the work