generative art
generative art
W H A T I S
Generative art
“Generative art refers to any art practice in
which the artist cedes control to a system
with functional autonomy that contributes to,
or results in, a completed work of art.
Systems may include natural language
instructions, biological or chemical processes,
computer programs, machines, self‐organizing
materials, mathematical operations, and other
procedural inventions.”
(Galanter 2008)
Mozart, Bach, Kirnberger
Music Dice Game
18th century
https://youtu.be/9Zdg6Ec4mVw?t=125
The idea was to create a minuet by cutting and
pasting together prewritten sections, making
selections according to the roll of a die.
Marcel Duchamp
Fountain
1917
Anything could be art.
The idea is everything.
Conceptual art
“In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the
work. … It means that all the planning and decisions are made beforehand
and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes the machine
that makes the art.”
Sol LeWitt (1967)
new approach in art significant in 1960s and 1970s
→ IMAGE
Proposal for wall drawing
Sol LeWitt
For LeWitt this often meant creating
instructions and diagrams for large scale wall
drawings that could be carried out by others.
Yoko Ono
Instruction Paintings
v
v
The key element in generative art is the use of an external
system to which the artist cedes partial or total control.
With generative art, the autonomous system does all the heavy
lifting; the artist only provides the instructions to the
system and the initial conditions.
Who is then the creator of the piece?
→ IMAGE
“Xerox” Book
Ian Burn, 1968
Documentation is often how we
come to know about conceptual art.
→ SOUND
4’33”
John Cage, 1952
“Until I die, there will be sounds.”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTEFKFiXSx4
→ SOUND
Discrete Music
Brian Eno, 1975
score
↑
Procedural methods of composition,
where music is defined by a set of rules or
conditions.
A 30-minute piece created by a tape-loop
feedback system. A synthesized melody
was recorded onto a tape machine, the
output of which was fed into a second tape
machine. The output of the second
machine was then fed back into the first
machine and the overlapping signals
recorded.
→ SOUND
Random Access
Naum Jun Paik, 1978
Visitors can use playback heads
of magnetic tape recorders to
listen to a part of a song by sliding
on tapes on the wall.
They can influence the playback
sound by changing the speed and
direction of their movement on
the tapes. So they can create their
own musical composition.
→ TEXT
How to make a Dadaist Poem
(method of Tristan Tzara)
Cut-up technique
W.Burroughs, D.Bowie
Cut-up technique
Cut-up technique of David Bowie
https://youtu.be/m1InCrzGIPU
Cut-ups William. S. Burroughs
https://youtu.be/Rc2yU7OUMcI
Also technique used by Bob Dylan, Iggy
Pop, Joy Division, Kurt Cobain, Radiohead.
The artist’s role in the
production process may
be closer to that of
a curator than a creator.
Generative Art. Matt Pearson. 2011
The artist’s role in the
production process may
be closer to that of
a curator than a creator.
You create a system,
model it,
nurture it,
and refine it;
but ultimately your ownership
of the work produced may be no
more than a parent’s pride in
the work of their offspring.
Generative Art. Matt Pearson. 2011
The artist’s role in the
production process may
be closer to that of
a curator than a creator.
You create a system,
model it,
nurture it,
and refine it;
but ultimately your ownership
of the work produced may be no
more than a parent’s pride in
the work of their offspring.
But let’s not underestimate the human role in the collaboration.
Generative Art. Matt Pearson. 2011
Procedural literacy as “the ability to read and write
processes to engage procedural representation and aesthetics”.
Procedural Literacy: Educating the New Media Practitioner, Beyond Fun. Michael Mateas. 2008
→ GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE (GUI)
Sketchpad
Ivan Sutherland, 1963
Drawing with computers
New way to design—use of constraints to form new relationships
between elements, such as snapping, keeping lines parallel, or forcing
them to have the same length.
→ computer-aided design (CAD) systems for fields of engineering
and architecture
“computers were considered insufficient for the conceptual stage of
design and were often used only at the end of the creative process”
Form+code. C.Reas, C. McWilliams, LUST, 2012
Set of switches, dials, a display and a light pen.
Drawing polygons, circles, arcs, etc.
New way to manipulate objects directly on screen.
Objects could be duplicated, moved, scaled, and rotated.
USE OF SOFTWARE IN ARTS
production conception
Reduces amount of time for execution + allows to
create complex, repetitive compositions → animation
COMPUTER PARTICIPATES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FORM
Efficiency facilitates the creative process by
enabling more time for exploration as less time is
needed for the final production.
“An intellectual and active creative partner that,
when fully exploited, could be used to produce wholly
new art forms and possibly new aesthetic experiences.”
A. Micheal Noll
COMPUTER PRODUCES A PRECONCEIVED FORM
GENERATIVE != DIGITAL ART
USE OF SOFTWARE IN ARTS
Learning to program and to engage the computer more directly with code opens
the possibility of not only creating tools, but also systems, environments,
and entirely new modes of expression.
It is here that the computer ceases to be a tool and instead becomes a medium.
Form+code. C. Reas, C. McWilliams, LUST, 2012
→ IMAGE
Lady Quark
Manfred Mohr, 1972
LET’S EXPLORE THE WORLD OF GENERATIVE DESIGN
→ SOUND
Scape
Brian Eno and Peter Chilver
https://youtu.be/8zNLlKRrUVk
→ SOUND + TYPOGRAPHY
Typographic Music
Dina Silanteva, 2011
→ SOUND
Elektrichka
https://youtu.be/wIXBFEhE4Sw
https://youtu.be/falB7g_LuBo
→ SOUND + ROBOTS
Tripod I
Moritz Simon Geist, ongoing
https://youtu.be/wHrCkyoe72U
→ SOUND
Beatjazz Sound System
Onyx Ashanti, ongoing
https://youtu.be/cqgX8H72LPs
→ SOUND + AI
Mahler Unfinished
Ars Electronica Futurelab (2019)
The technical level is astounding of course, I wouldn’t have thought such a thing possible. But, as I said, what does it mean? What does the piece
of music have to tell us? We immediately feel a great uncertainty: are we allowed to feel anything? And if so, then what? Can the work of art tell us
something, communicate something?
Mr. Poschner, what do you think of the
result of the work on the AI model? Do you
notice any differences to conventionally
composed pieces?
→ SOUND(SCULPTURE)
Unnamed Soundsculpture
Onformative
https://vimeo.com/38874664
https://onformative.com/work/unnamed-soundsculpture
→ SCULPTURE
Aerial net sculptures
Janet Echelman
https://youtu.be/l3rIW9nJw3Y?t=26
AI
→ AI + SCULPTURE
Gaudi-like sculpture
SoftLab, 2017
IBM’s Watson has been trained on the work of Gaudi and the
rich culture and style of Barcelona’s unique architecture.
→ POETRY
Oisín: Wave Function Collapse
https://github.com/mewo2/oisin http://mariechatfield.com/markomposition/
→ POETRY
Markov Composition
→ IMAGE
DeStijl (Neoplasticismus)
Dutch art movement since 1917
vertical + horizontal lines
primary colors + black + white
→ IMAGE
Forms Derived From the Cube
Sol LeWitt, 1982
→ IMAGE
Topological structures
Zdeněk Sýkora
→ IMAGE
10 000 Digital Paintings
Field
|https://www.field.io/project/digital-paintings/
→ IMAGE
Forever at the V&A (20 000 postcards)
Universal Everything
|https://universaleverything.com/projects/forever-at-the-va-2
→ IMAGE + AI
Neural Glitch
Mario Klingemann
Lumen Prize Gold 2018
→ IMAGE + AI
The next Rembrandt
Computer-generated
painting
The Next Rembrandt is a 3D
printed painting made solely
from data of Rembrandt’s
body of work (from 300
paintings), and was created
using deep learning algorithms
and facial recognition
techniques.
https://www.markrobert.nl/project/the-next-rembrandt
1. Gathering the data
2. Determining the subject
3. Generating the features
4. Bringing it to life
→ IMAGE + AI
The next Rembrandt
https://vimeo.com/345881421, 6:00
→ IMAGE + AI
Humanity (Fall of the Damned)
Scott Eaton
Eaton’s Bodies neural
network is trained on over
100,000 nudes he carefully
photographed in the studio
from a diverse set of
volunteers over a two-year
period. With this bespoke
dataset as the foundation,
the network has been
carefully trained to render
Eaton’s hand-drawn inputs
into photographic, surreal
representations.
→ NATURAL PHENOMENA
Seek
Nicholas Negroponte (MIT), 1970
→ NATURAL PHENOMENA (MOVEMENT REACTIVE SOUND)
Bacardi Bat Beats
Mr.President Agency (2014)
https://vimeo.com/141885824, 1:30
“We decided to create music from
bat movement. We had to create
new technology and hope that at the
dusk, the bats will show up.”
→ NATURAL PHENOMENA
Condensation Cube
Hans Haacke (since 1965)
Interactions of physical and biological
systems and their natural processes.
It consists of a sealed Perspex box filled
with a small amount of water.
Condensation begins to form and to run
down the sides of the box, changing
according to the ambient light and
temperature.
https://youtu.be/0p3je4WGcM0
→ NATURAL PHENOMENA (TELEKINETIC INSTALLATION)
Telepresent Water
David Bowen
Surface controlled by wires and
servo-motors that replicate sea
wave patterns measured in
real-time in a remote location.
https://youtu.be/EkvazIZx-F0
→ NATURAL PHENOMENA
Rain Room
Random International (2012)
→ SOCIAL HAPPENING / PERFORMANCE
Women licking jam off a car from
the happening series Household
Allan Kaprow
→ COLLABORATIVE CREATION
Together
Universal Everything (2015)
https://vimeo.com/106589895
→ SIMULATION
Liquid Glacial Dining Table
Zaha Hadid (2012)
Fluid movements. Gentle
waves and ripples pulse
beneath surface while the
legs pour from the
horizontal in a dramatic
frozen vortex like water.
“From an unknown location, I break into IKEA’s computer server. In this nerve
centre, the CAD files for every IKEA product are stored and are downloaded
worldwide. By infecting the CAD files with the ‘Elephantiasis virus’ I have just
designed, I can hack the entire range of products. The virus causes random
deformities, like lumps, cracks and humps, which only show up when the
customer prints his product at home with his 3D printer.”
→ SIMULATION
Merrick
Daan van den Berg
https://vimeo.com/130977932
→ SIMULATION
Floraform
Nervous systems
→ SIMULATION + 4D
Kinematics
Nervous systems (2014)
https://vimeo.com/80893331
3D-printing jewellery and garments
with articulated joints so they
automatically change shape once
removed from the printer
→ 4D PRINT
Gemini Alpha Chair
Neri Oxman, MIT (2014)
"The chaise is designed to use curved surfaces that tend to
reflect the sound inwards. The surface structure scatters the
sound and reflects it into the 3D-printed skin that absorbs that
sound, and creates a quiet and calm environment."
3D print of 44 different composite materials
→ AI
Replika App
→ EHM, ŇUŇU
PomPom Mirror
Daniel Rozlin, 2015
https://vimeo.com/128375543
PROGRAMMING AS POETRY
Programming languages are just tools, our new languages.
PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES FOR GENERATIVE DESIGN
real-time audio
Processing OpenFrameworks
Supercollider
Resolume MadMapper Maxvvvv
PureDataArduino
Touch designer
Grasshopper Rhino
audio, sound, and performance
graphics, video, audio
electronics prototyping generative 3D modelling
just about anything
vjing, lights, videomapping, ...
Each programming language is a different kind of material to work and think with and
they encourage different thinking about the work.