Category: Generative Art

Categories
Generative Art

Jasia Reichardt

Jasia Reichardt was Assistant Director of the ICA in London in the late 1960s at the time of “Cybernetic Serendipity”.

Tate Jasia Reichardt webcast.

She wrote three essential guides to Computer Art at the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s.

“Cybernetic Serendipity, The Computer and the Arts “,
Frederick A. Praeger, 1969 or
Studio International, 1970, ISBN: 0902063065
As the title suggests, this is the book accompanying the show “Cybernetic Serendipity”…

“The Computer in Art”,
Studio Vista, 1971, ISBN: 0289795508
An overview of the Computer in fine art, animation, design and art education at the time. Recommended

“Cybernetics Intuitions and Art”,
Studio Vista, 1971 ISBN: 0289701082
A more philosophical/polemical work apparently (I haven’t been able to get hold of a copy yet).

Try ABEBooks… And be prepared to pay through the nose for “Cybernetic Serendipity”…

Categories
Generative Art

Classic Generative Art Texts

Two classic Generative/Computer art texts available online:

Expanded Cinema

Algorithmic Aesthetics

I wish I could find a hardcopy of Algorithmic Aesthetics. The usually reliable ABEBooks can’t help me…

Categories
Generative Art

Generative Art Collections

Here are some links to collections of Generative Art:

Freshmeat.net

The generative art site

runme

Rhizome

Categories
Generative Art

Generative Art Links

Here are some generative art links:
Kandid – A generative imaging application (GIA)
SoDA are at it again, this time with Proce55ing
Use SDL with Lisp
Shizuka
…and it’s author’s weblog
SmartPainter – Another GIA
ThinkingSketch – GIA
“Cognitive Architecture”
Evolvotron – GIA
Algorithmic Fine Art
DIAN – Digital Interactive Artists’ Network
Can’t Code Won’t Code (Who’ve quoted me recently! 🙂 )

Categories
Generative Art

Prolog

Prolog is good for representing and dealing with facts and rules, and it’s good at working with tree and graph structures. Prolog should be used for graphics and art a lot more than it is (my current project “Got To Start Somewhere” is written in Prolog, as was the original version of “The Cybernetic Artwork Nobody Wrote”):

Geometry in Prolog.

Prolog shape grammars.

A simple model of narrative (expressed in Prolog).

Categories
Generative Art

Lisp Art

As well as AARON, various other aesthetic and creative systems have been programmed in Lisp:
Karl Sims – Evolutionary Art.
The animation system used in the movie TRON.
AL – The Animation Language.
Geometric analogies in Lisp. In 1962!!!!
Copycat – creative letter analogies.
Making aesthetic choices. 1979.
Animations from story descriptions. 1979 again.

Categories
Generative Art

A Harold Cohen Webliography

Harold Cohen’s artificial intelligence artwork generator program AARON:
Ask The Scientists: Harold Cohen
Grand Text Auto Interview With Harold Cohen
Recent Essay on Kurzweil AI
Lots of essays from the 1970s to the 1990s. A must-read.
Download an older version of AARON as a (PC) screensaver

Categories
Generative Art

Snapshot Generativity

“Frieze” ran an article on “Lomography” some time ago, concluding that
however designerish “Lomo” photographers may feel they’re being they
are still producing Lomo-aesthetic images (see
http://www.lomography.org for why). But this is true of any
fixed-focus or special-effect camera, from the Box Brownie through
1950s corrective-lens-and-filter cameras, “Polaroids”, 110s,
lenticular print cameras, fixed-lens digital cameras and Lomo’s
multi-lens or coloured-flash cameras. Lomo just try to make it a
virtue.

There’s a name for the self-similar photography of the tourist and the
partygoer: The Snapshot Aesthetic. Partly due to the
would-be-photographer trying to realise pre-existent image models,
partly because of the constraints of the media, things always seem to
come out a certain way in snapshots.

The Snapshot Aesthetic casts its shadows from the platonic realm into
the real world like a brand or a religion, actualised by anyone
without an SLR. It is therefore generative, an engine with input,
output and an aesthetic transformation between the two. Describing The
Snapshot Aesthetic in this way is not an after-the-fact switch of
description and prescription – snapshots are still being taken and are
most likely becoming more like snapshots as time goes on.

This may seem a strangely destructive generativity, one that limits
the space of images rather than extending it. But this is true of any
aesthetic – an aesthetic is a set of constraints on production. The
imposition of constraints limits, but it also directs and
focusses. Infinite choice would take infinite time and have infinitely
dissipate meaning so constraining the choice space is good. Art
without constraints is not possible, but art without knowledge of its
constraints is kitsch.

Categories
Generative Art

100 Artworks

Some tiny glazed rich pink squares on a halftoned bright silver
ground.
A pair of massive rich sunset red rectangles on a bright leaf green ground.
A pair of massive dark sunset red organic shapes on a rich sunset red ground.
Some small crosshatched rich bronze organic shapes on a crosshatched rich sunset yellow ground.
Many large bright platinum squares on a bright shocking pink ground.
A pale grey square on a crosshatched dark rust-coloured ground.
A pair of small halftoned bright denim triangles on a rough bright silver ground.
A pair of small bright leaf green ovals on a rich grey ground.
Many large rough rich green triangles on a rich orange ground.
A pair of massive glazed pale black squares on a rough rich blue-screen blue ground.
A pair of scumbled bright non-repro blue stars on a scumbled rich grey ground.
A small pale non-repro blue rectangle on a dark denim ground.
A halftoned rich leaf green oval on a smooth pale sunset yellow ground.
Some large crosshatched dark leaf green stars on a crosshatched dark cotton white ground.
Some crosshatched bright shocking pink hexagons on a dark cotton white ground.
Some glazed bright cotton white irregular shapes on a rich non-repro blue ground.
Some tiny pale orange rectangles on a scumbled dark neon blue ground.
A pair of tiny scumbled pale cotton white octagons on a glazed pale sunset yellow ground.
A pair of massive dark sea green rectangles on a rich white ground.
Many large crosshatched bright grey octagons on a crosshatched bright platinum ground.
Some rough bright grey stars on a glazed rich platinum ground.
A pair of massive bright white irregular shapes on a bright sunset yellow ground.
A pair of small halftoned bright white circles on a pale silver ground.
A large glazed rich gold pentagon on a halftoned bright blue-screen blue ground.
Some massive bright gold triangles on a halftoned bright blue-screen blue ground.
Many massive crosshatched bright sea green triangles on a halftoned bright white ground.
Many tiny bright silver circles on a rich khaki ground.
Many massive smooth pale red stars on a pale sunset red ground.
Some rich white triangles on a pale grey ground.
A pair of tiny rich platinum organic shapes on a pale gold ground.
A massive crosshatched pale black pentagon on a bright blue-screen blue ground.
Many large glazed rich pink pentagons on a scumbled rich purple ground.
A pair of massive halftoned bright grey squares on a rough pale sunset yellow ground.
Many large pale non-repro blue octagons on a crosshatched bright non-repro blue ground.
A tiny pale silver triangle on a crosshatched bright neon blue ground.
A rich red octagon on a halftoned pale green ground.
Some massive halftoned dark bronze irregular shapes on a smooth bright sky blue ground.
A large rich neon blue square on a dark khaki ground.
A pair of large rich shocking pink ovals on a pale suede ground.
Many small pale leaf green squares on a scumbled pale black ground.
A large rich sunset red pentagon on a pale blue-screen blue ground.
A pair of dark rust-coloured ovals on a pale bronze ground.
A tiny rough rich green-screen green oval on a dark black ground.
A dark neon blue hexagon on a bright sunset yellow ground.
A massive dark khaki irregular shape on a pale blue-screen blue ground.
Some tiny glazed rich green-screen green pentagons on a bright gold ground.
Some smooth pale green-screen green rectangles on a glazed dark green-screen green ground.
Some small bright cotton white octagons on a crosshatched dark rust-coloured ground.
Many smooth bright white irregular shapes on a rich non-repro blue ground.
Many small rich platinum squares on a scumbled pale platinum ground.
A halftoned pale blue-screen blue irregular shape on a rich green-screen green ground.
Many massive halftoned bright brown ovals on a scumbled dark sea green ground.
A tiny dark sunset yellow irregular shape on a halftoned pale white ground.
Some glazed rich blue-screen blue octagons on a rough pale black ground.
A pair of rough rich suede ovals on a bright non-repro blue ground.
Many small crosshatched rich cotton white pentagons on a halftoned dark neon blue ground.
A pair of massive dark green-screen green rectangles on a bright non-repro blue ground.
Many tiny scumbled dark red circles on a pale leaf green ground.
Some massive dark sea green pentagons on a rich sea green ground.
A massive rich white circle on a rich sunset red ground.
A pair of large crosshatched dark grey octagons on a halftoned rich black ground.
Many small pale leaf green ovals on a bright platinum ground.
Some large glazed rich denim stars on a rich white ground.
Some large rough pale white hexagons on a rich brown ground.
Some small crosshatched rich neon blue irregular shapes on a dark leaf green ground.
A pair of massive glazed bright green-screen green hexagons on a bright shocking pink ground.
Many large rich black organic shapes on a halftoned rich silver ground.
A scumbled dark green-screen green hexagon on a pale sea green ground.
A tiny glazed dark rust-coloured square on a smooth rich neon blue ground.
A pair of tiny dark bronze rectangles on a pale non-repro blue ground.
Many tiny dark suede hexagons on a rough pale silver ground.
A pale black organic shape on a crosshatched rich green-screen green ground.
Many large bright green-screen green stars on a dark sunset yellow ground.
Some massive dark rust-coloured circles on a glazed bright shocking pink ground.
Some crosshatched rich sea green squares on a rich bronze ground.
Some large scumbled bright shocking pink rectangles on a scumbled pale grey ground.
Some scumbled bright white squares on a dark sunset red ground.
Many tiny dark sunset yellow irregular shapes on a pale non-repro blue ground.
Many halftoned bright platinum pentagons on a halftoned dark green-screen green ground.
A pair of large rough bright pink stars on a smooth pale sea green ground.
Many massive scumbled bright leaf green ovals on a pale white ground.
A pair of massive scumbled rich sea green hexagons on a pale khaki ground.
A pair of small crosshatched pale white ovals on a crosshatched pale brown ground.
Some scumbled bright shocking pink pentagons on a smooth bright platinum ground.
A large bright grey circle on a pale sunset yellow ground.
A pair of dark blue-screen blue irregular shapes on a rich black ground.
A tiny scumbled pale silver hexagon on a crosshatched rich purple ground.
Many tiny dark black triangles on a halftoned rich gold ground.
A pair of tiny crosshatched rich red octagons on a scumbled bright green-screen green ground.
Some massive smooth pale sky blue squares on a bright bronze ground.
A pair of small scumbled bright sunset red rectangles on a rich sunset yellow ground.
Some small bright white rectangles on a smooth dark grey ground.
Some massive smooth bright gold triangles on a bright shocking pink ground.
Some massive rich silver triangles on a bright platinum ground.
Some tiny scumbled rich neon blue triangles on a dark blue-screen blue ground.
A pair of massive smooth pale platinum hexagons on a dark neon blue ground.
A pair of small pale denim triangles on a dark sunset yellow ground.
Some massive scumbled pale non-repro blue organic shapes on a pale yellow ground.
Some glazed bright sea green irregular shapes on a smooth pale pink ground.
Many large crosshatched rich sky blue hexagons on a crosshatched rich green ground.

Categories
Generative Art

Open Art Ontology

For several projects I need a semantic net/slipnet to represent aesthetic concepts for a program to work with. This could be generally useful (or at least amusing) so it could be an open source project.
Prolog, like Lisp/Scheme, is another language that doubles as a data structuring file format and it is ideal for representing semantic nets and frames, and you can implement it in about five lines of itself. 😉 So this will be in Prolog.