abstraction

Mark Wattenberg, Connect the Dots

Wattenberg’s code is the most compact of the three and he focuses our attention on that part of it that “daws the picture,” just 16 lines. There is something strange in the way he has made the code presentable by formatting it in HTML with color-coding, and then included in the code’s

Scott Snibbe, Tripolar

The nearly 300 lines of code in Snibbe’s piece might overwhelm a viewer. Again the applet’s java is color-coded, but in this case, the colors mimic what one would expect to see in a good editor. This is the programmer’s view, color-coded according to the syntax of java itself. And

Mark Napeir, 3 Dots

Mark Napier’s 3 Dots code is expansive; some 600 odd lines are spread over three files, and he uses several additional external libraries as well.[13] Even more than Snibbe, Napier makes use of object-oriented strategies. With the Bitmap255 object he creates a visual system capable of drawing translucent lines. In SpringyObject he creates sub-classes for springs and masses that behave according to the laws of physics. An instance of the SpringyObject is a particular system of masses and springs whose elements, locations and velocities can be simulated over time. In the main body of code Napier sets up an instance of such a system (SpringyDots): one fixed mass and a group of 3 movable masses connected by three springs, of varying tension. The spring to the fixed mass is not made visible.

Drawing Machine at Southern Exposure Monster Drawing Rally

I participated in the Monster Drawing Rally put on by community arts and education oganization Southern Exposure as a fundraiser. 100 artists drew live for an hour and they sell the results. I used an 80's era pen plotter to do my drawings. I had written a java driver for the  HP7475 and created a number of sketches based on a recursive tree algorithm.

Flock Music

The question of what the group is is vexing. It is hard to conceive of its proper functioning. We seem to constantly be wondering if we are doing what we are supposed to be doing.

Image is Dialectics at a Standstill

Forty years seperate the events captured in these images, one from May 1968 Paris and the other from November 2011 New York. The pixels from each have been rearranged to approximate the image of the other.

From A to B

To say that under a regime of the digital, the photograph has become "dubious," as Peter Lunenfeld has, still does not account fully for the ontological change that photography has undergone. The gross manipulability of the photograph is actually that which is most clearly understood and commonly  remarked on.

Lines: Frequency Study

This is simple algorithm for the plotter where it draws a series of parrallel lines with variable frequency to fill the page.

Perlin Clocks

The multi-dimensional gradient noise provided by Ken Perlin's algorithm is the compass for this minimal study in variation accross a grid. The direction of the line is determined by perlin noise.

Photo Strands or Stochastic Photography

The constraints of drawing with an antiquated plotter include the difficulty of drawing anything but straight lines. So to represent photographic images took some creativity. This software draws random lines in a density inversely proportionate to the light density of each area in the photograph.