Kinetic light artist Paul Friedlander's installation Timeless Universe is concerned with cosmology. His approach is through written records, varying from ancient scripts to signs, codes and mathematical formula. He takes these images full of mystery and fuses them using his own computer codes. The result is an generative kinetic work that never repeats, refreshing itself daily with a new variants and themes programmed into it. www.paulfriedlander.com
Electric Sheep
Electric Sheep is a free, open source screen saver run by thousands of people all over the world. It can be installed on any ordinary PC or Mac. When these computers "sleep", the screen saver comes on and the computers communicate with each other by the internet to share the work of creating morphing abstract animations known as "sheep". The result is a collective "android dream", an homage to Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.
Morphogenomics
The creation of an infinite variety of forms based on a single algorithm is a method used by Lalvani in the Column Museum (above) It is a virtual environment of all possible architectural columns of the past, present and future. Haresh Lalvani is a professor of architecture at Pratt Institute and a self-described “architect-morphologist”. He has focused a lifetime of study in architecture, nature and math in the exploration of forms and the development of a new architectural language. He introduced the field of genomic architecture five years ago, where the model of DNA building blocks are applied to the creation of an endless variety of forms. In this new science, called Morphogenomics, he is formulating a universal code for all morphologies - natural and artificial. He also developed AlgoRhythm technologies to efficiently bend sheets of metals into complex forms based on advanced mathematics of surfaces for architectural and design applications.
Biothing
Alisa Andrasek is an experimental practitioner of architecture and computational processes in design. She is the founder of biothing, “a transdisciplinary laboratory which research focuses on generative potential of physical and artificial computational systems for design.” Her computational design techniques are applied to architecture, fabrics, interactive and sound installations, structural studies, gardens, curtains, ceilings and more. Her explorations include computational algorithms, morphological patterns and genetic design. She is interested in the synthesis of art and science by bringing together aesthetics of design with engineering through the use of genetic algorithms in the manufacturing process of materials. Working with genetic algorithms, she says “You can control the nature of them, but not the final result. You’re setting up certain conditions and then letting this genetic game play on its own.”
The Selfish Gene
Richard Dawkins is the world's most controversial evolutionary biologist. Publication of his 1976 book, "The Selfish Gene," thrust Dawkins into the limelight as the handsome, irascible, human face of scientific reductionism. The book provoked everything from outrage to glee by arguing that natural selection worked its creative powers only through genes, not species or individuals. Humans are merely "gene survival machines," he asserted in the book. Dawkins stuck to his theme but expanded his territory in such subsequent books as "The Blind Watchmaker," "Unweaving the Rainbow" and "Climbing Mount Improbable." His recent work, "The Ancestor's Tale," traces human lineage back through time, stopping to ponder important forks in the evolutionary road. Currently, Dawkins is the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University, a position created for him in 1995 by Charles Simonyi, a Microsoft millionaire.
Vague Terrain
still from image producing machine by Jeremy Rotzstain
The online digital art journal Vague Terrain have launched Vague Terrain 03: Generative Art featuring work by 11 artists and musicians. Edited by Greg Smith and Neil Wiernik, Vague Terrain asks contributing artists not just for works (images, videos, mp3s), but also to articulate the context those works exist in. The final result is both artistically challenging and theoretically weighty. The most important theoretical contribution is a new paper from Philip Galanter, in which he traces a genealogy of generative art, presenting a number of historical works that are generative without being computer-based. Specifically, he looks at two exhibitions (Logical Conclusions: 40 years of rule-based art at Pace Wildenstein, New York and Beyond Geometry at Los Angeles County Museum of Art). Using these as a reference point, he clarifies some often-misunderstood terms and analyzes how the works in these shows can be understood in relation to a generative tradition.
theverymany
theverymany is refreshingly focused on sketches and code, but there is documentation of one interesting recent project: “From DIN to DIM”, a “series of experimentations looking at transitions between the German Standard of design to self-similar objects controled by declared variables…”. Done with Vincent Nowak and Claudia Corcilius, it consists of generative formal studies, using nested loops to generate structure. As with much computational architecture, the results are visually very compelling. The techno-organic tower structures recall fashions in blobby architecture, while simultaneously reminding one of 70s sci-fi book covers. The translation of simple code structures into complex and appealing form seems effortless, it would certainly be interesting to see the slides shown in higher detail. Marc Fornes is a graduate of the AA’s Digital Research Labotary class, and is currently working as an architect for Zaha Hadid Ltd. He indicates in the sidebar of his blog that his rhinoscript library might be available as open source.
Datatecture
Romanian artist Alex Dragulescu turns data sets into raw materials for the generation of tantalizing 2D and 3D forms. Rather than scientific visualization intent on clarifying the content of the data, Dragulescu creates graphic and temporal compositions notable for their strong graphic qualities.
Spam Architecture is one project that has garnered much attention recently. Here spam is translated into three-dimensional form by analysing keywords and patterns in the text. Like its sibling project Spam Plants, it explores the mapping of textual data into spatial configurations.
Ambient Music
The Pearl by Budd & Eno
If James Brown is the godfather of soul then Brian Eno is the god of ambience. Brian Eno has also become the default spokesperson and the steward of all things ambient. Eno began his career with the art rock band Roxy Music. He left Roxy Music in the early ‘70s and began recording solo pop albums, Taking Tiger Mountain (by Strategy). With his 1975 release Another Green World Eno departed the world of wacky pop and entered the world of ambient pop. Eno's songs were becoming more spacey and tone-oriented; his lyrics were becoming more sparse and image-laden. In 1978, Brian Eno made a CD without drums, lyrics, or anything other than a synthesizer and a sampler. That CD has become the ambient CD by which all others are judged. Ambient 1/Music for Airports
Brian Eno's Music for Airports is virtually ubiquitous - it's been used everywhere from tv ads to interval musak. For me the music works best unadulterated brian eno
An Evolutionary Architecture
Selfbuilder by John Frazer and Walter Segal
One of the most influential books on morphogenetic design An Evolutionary Architecture by John Frazer was published in January 1995 to coincide with an exhibition of the same name at the Architectural Association. The book investigates the fundamental form-generating processes in architecture, considering architecture as a form of artificial life, and proposing a genetic representation in a form of DNA-like code-script, which can then be subject to developmental and evolutionary processes in response to the user and the environment. The aim of an evolutionary architecture is to achieve in the built environment the symbiotic behaviour and metabolic balance found in the natural environment. To do so, it operates like an organism, in a direct analogy with the underlying design process of nature. Frazer is currently reserach co-ordinator for Gehry Technologies.
