There’s a new fluidity in design. For Project 1, I’m building an emergent process using existing algorithms that are simple in design, yet elegant and complex in execution. The parameters calls for a high level of visual refinement using only black lines.

It is very easy to become overwhelmed with all the great visual complexity and generative artworks through collectives such as VisualComplexity.com, SpaceCollective.org, and Processing.org’s exhibitions. Also, I’ve been reading up on John Maeda’s Creative Code and Casey and Fry’s Processing: A Programmer’s Handbook for Visual Designers and Artists (see: Synthesis 4: Structure and Interface, esp. Andreas Schlegel’s swingtree works). With this in mind, my expectations in terms of the level of refinement given the two weeks to complete it will not be beyond my limits.



Reading Blobjects & Beyond by Steven and Maria Holt inspires me to use an existing (which will make the process much easier) algorithm that is visually pure form, held together by its quintessential fluidity. A Blobject as the authors describe, “engenders emotion – an immediate visceral response o its exaggerated, caricatured, or otherwise exuberant form.”

One algorithm, by artist Peter de Jong is the following:


According to his website, these images plot the phase space of the Peter d Jong system using arbitrary starting values within the image region.
(http://www.complexification.net/gallery/machines/peterdejong/)

Kudos to Peter for enabling fellow programmers to view the source code to learn the inner workings and execution of the program.

The next step is to refine the program in giving it extra parameters in the elegance that is mathematics. I will consult with Casey and Aaron Siegel.

Also, I considered using existing data sets such as Digg’s API or social networking, however, I just want to stick with the simple mathematical algorithms for now.

Here’s to a wonderful Processing journey.

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(update)
After a class critique, I have refined the project to include a fitness function into the equations, to evolve them so they are not merely cliche images. More to come in the next post.

— Michael Sun