Author: lubar

lubar-LookingOutwards03

Constellaction 

Contellaction is a piece by panGenerator, consiting of multiple acrylic pyramids that light up individually in response to light. This results in a 'wave' of light patterns depending on their proximity to the other pyramids. What I particularly like about this work is that each of the pyramids can be moved and assembled into any location or pattern, allowing for those who interact with the work to actively take part not only in the initiating a 'light wave' effect, but in creating and interacting with the patterns and forms that they can then light up. It feels a little bit like a dominoes game.

I also think that there is something very beautiful about how simple the interaction and resulting reaction is, yet this allows for changing experiences and freedom to play for the audience.

I think that this piece is most effective when there is a large mass of clustered or patterned pyramids, rather than in the shorter lines/segments. In those shorter segments it loses the ripple element that makes this piece interesting.

lubar-clock

Link to Program !

For this piece I was particularity interested in how we have formed our entire system and concept of time on a series of, what appears in many ways to be, random and coincidental relationships of cycles in the universe. I'd like to imagine that there could be a space in which the system of time is determined by the rhythm of a polar bears walk, a crab's waving, or the speed of a motorcycle. All entirely random things on random planets. In this case however, I did still want to create a readable, if not somewhat ambiguous, and I really wanted the feel of cycling cycles to be visualized. The polar bear and crab's feet pace on a rhythm of seconds, and they move across their prospective planets with speeds based on the 12 hour, 60 minute etc, clock.

I had a lot of fun creating the characters and was inspired by the intro sequence to Good Omens, created by Peter Anderson Studio, for the cacophony collage feel. Overall I am happy with how the piece turned out, although there are still changes that I would like to make, that I did not get around to getting to work (primarily with the order of layering to get the planets to appear to be moving in in the z axis seamlessly). I was initially working with the composition in a 3d space, however was unable to keep the transparent edges of the imported images from overlapping and covering pieces of the other images. Another element that I am happy with is the process of actually planning out my program ahead of time, to significantly minimize on problems that come up because of decisions not thought out in the beginning of the process.

lubar-reading03

Our culture is constantly shifted and changed by developments of new technologies, and those technologies build off old 'new' technologies which results in this cycle of remaking and re-creating. The concept of the first word/last word art is a really interesting one to consider, especially in the context of rapidly changing and developing digital technologies that we are in dialogue with today. I think that one of the greatest difficulties in working in something that is technologically novel is that in order for it to age well (I suppose this may be more significant to last word art, but still) is that there needs to exist more than the technology behind it. I am particularly interested in the unclear line between where experimentation and expression meet to create first word art. When it comes to where the difference between a new process and experimentation lies, and where the creation of first word art is drawn, this transition may appear when the voice of the artist is enhanced by the new technology available, but then again once looked at like so, it seems to fall under the umbrella of middle ground towards last word art.

lubar-AnimatedLoop

Code Link

The overall process for this piece was interesting, and challenging in places that I did not expect it to be. I found that one of the most time consuming pieces was wrapping my head around and  implementing the relationship between the wave loop and the loop combining the separate motions of the boats tilt and flip. Because of how I had implemented the location and multipliers based on frameCount, I found in counting the length of the flip cycle, that reaching a point of repeated looping took two loops to settle into. This took a lot of finagling (and magic numbers) to fix . I was did not implement all of the elements that I initially planned to, and am unhappy that the boat rising motion is abrupt. However, I am very happy with how the waves turned out. I used the 'doubleExponentialSigmoid' ease function to increase their size, and sin relations to 'wave' them. I think it worked nicely, visually relative to the boat, and moving across each other.

Initial Sketches:

lubar-ReadingO2

Question 1A.

3rd grade birthday parties are these fantastic events that exhibit effective complexity, in that at this age the imposed parental structure and plan provided tends to follow the order of specific patters, ex: balloons, cake, theme (the specifics of falling under random as often chosen by child), child-friendly location, 3rd graders invited. 3rd grade birthday parties in this sense are often immediately recognizable as 3rd grade birthday parties. Then there is the total randomness that  occurs when 5 to 20 3rd graders of different dispositions are introduced onto the scene with balloons, cake, hats and freedom to play on a sugar kick, making each event unique. 

Question 1B,

To the Problem of Authenticity, and whether generative art is really art at all, I hold some personal stake. I've often heard from certain people that 'computerized' forms of art must be easier to make, as its the computer doing the work rather than the artist, and that particularity frustrates me as I think it is A) Not true, and B) Cheapening and disregarding of the authenticity of the work and art itself. I think that generative art is most certainly art, in that the process of creating the constraints and directions that allow for exciting randomness and multiple productions, is directed and chosen by the artist themselves, the computer is their creative tool.

lubar – LookingOutwards02

Procedural Lake Village by Anastasia Opara, 2016

This is an image featuring a series of lake houses that have been generated by a procedure "all the way from silhouette to final texturing*"

Seeing this blew my mind, in retrospect it makes sense that in movies and video games objects would have some generative component to their creation, but I had really never considered this to be something that could be done with so much, I suppose, artistry.

These generated houses have such a beautiful, whimsical, and hand touched and imagined form, texture, and feel. Realizing that this kind of world building can take place in a generative programmed structure is eye opening. The algorithm itself likely works as a generative 3D model with specific constraints and elements such as window, door, walls, roof etc that are matched with specific types of (also generated) textures. This all balances the order and disorder beautifully. The creators artistic sensibly comes through in the style of the houses/the constraints and textures and the natural forms that this algorithm follows.

Link to work

 

lubar – Interruptions

Observations:

  1. The artwork is a square
  2. The centers of each line segment are in a grid form
  3. The line segments appear randomly rotated
  4. The line segments occasionally intercept
  5. There appear to be 57 possible lines across each axis
  6. The piece has a blank margin
  7. There are clusters of blank spaces that appear in random locations
  8. The clusters of black spaces are not uniform in size or shape
  9. The length of each line is slightly less the double the distance between each line
  10. The lines are thin and short

Interruptions Sketch Link

In the process of creating this, I found the rotation of the line segments to be particularly frustrating, although I initially assumes that that would pose the least challenges. The method that I was using involved the rotate() and translate() functions and it took me a while to figure out to use multiple translations I needed push() and pop(). Overall however, especially after discussing Perlin noise a bit with Sophia, I found the other elements to run smoothly, although not perfectly when compared with the original pieces. Molnar's original interruptions have a slightly 'free-er' quality that I was not able to capture despite playing around with it for a long time. Despite the slightly denser interruptions, I am content with how the reproduction turned out, and I would be curious to know how that effect was/might have been achieved without Perlin noise, as I haven't quite been able to wrap my head around it yet.

 

 

lubar – 01 Reading

"0. The Critical Engineer considers Engineering to be the most transformative language of our time, shaping the way we move, communicate and think. It is the work of the Critical Engineer to study and exploit this language, exposing its influence."

The way that we interact and communicate with our surroundings and the things we create, are built from how we understand the world around us. That understanding comes from a place of exploration and questioning, and those explorations and questions in turn transform and develop our understandings.  The role of the "critical engineer" is to explore those questions, why we have those questions, and through this process present the findings that further transform out language of understanding.

The circular system of finding and questioning pertains to the development/'engineering' of the technological systems that we have, creating new possibilities and abilities to function within, which in turn pose new questions from the technologies and developments that were previously not-imagined. Its this process that continues to push advancements both in the 'tech' classical engineering field and in creative practices.