Assignment 3 Looking Outwards – Rosey

One Perfect Cube

http://florianjenett.de/one-perfect-cube-making-of/

This is a combination of three clocks that form a perfect cube once every twelve hours for only one second. Processing was used to create the design and make sure there would be no unwanted collisions during the rotation times. For me, it is interesting that the piece is constantly changing and it seems like we long for it to be in its perfect form, but the completed cube occurs so rarely, and for only a moment. It is kind of nice though, that even when the piece is in its “imperfect” times, it can still produce interesting forms from the three hands of each clock. In the future, perhaps the artist could explore making even more shapes or forms using the concept of clocks and time, but I like the fact that the piece itself is always moving and changing in a set cycle. I’m sure this piece was inspired by other mechanical kinds of artworks that use things like motors or gears that give a constant cycle of action.

Mycelium

http://onecm.com/projects/mycelium/

This project written in processing, called Mycelium simulates the growth of a fungal hyphae that is “fed” with images. The hyphae grow more into lighter area (because branching and growth speed are affected by the lightness of the image) and avoid their own trails. It’s cool that this program leaves a very expressive, yet somewhat organic trail as it moves and essentially recreates the image that it is fed in black and white using only small lines. I like that it really does seem like the image is only made from plants like vines and keeps such a natural form. I almost wonder if it would be worth it to add an element of color to the fungus, or if such a thing would ruin some of the organic feel of the piece. Part of the fun is also simply watching this happen – on the link there is a video of the fungus moving around, and to me, it’s interesting to see something that starts as just a few rogue lines turn into a complete piece of work in less than a minute.

Boids + Perlin Noise Flow Field

http://openprocessing.org/sketch/8407

This sketch on open processing where these tadpole-like objects, if left untouched will naturally move about and eventually start flocking with each other. But, if you click the mouse near them, they will try to avoid your cursor by all means, even if they have to split up from their group. I like these sorts of projects because to me, it is really cool seeing something like a computer program recreate something that is very natural looking. The crossover from technology to nature is also kind of neat because nature is something that simply happens without much explanation, yet we seek to comprehend it and use things like programming to try to make it into something calculated. This project would be pretty cool if it became a 3D thing so it could be looked at from different angles and seem more like birds flocking rather than tadpoles or something swimming together.