This is a great example of how a generative algorithm set designed for reaction+diffusion can be used in an interactive installation. There are some very interesting possibilities when these visuals could be mapped onto people+buildings+spaces with projection mapping.

Below is text from Brian Knep…

Six-channel interactive video installation;
computer, six video projectors, three video cameras, custom software, vinyl floor.

Healing Pool uses custom algorithms, cameras, and overlapping, high-definition projectors to create a seamless, glowing pool of organic patterns on the floor. The patterns are generated with a mathematical model first used by scientist to simulate firing patterns of brain neurons and later used to explore other visual and temporal forms found in nature.

Left alone, the patterns slowly pulsate and shift over the course of each day. When a person walks across the piece the patterns tear apart and rebuild themselves, but never exactly as before. The change is similar to a scar left behind when a wound heals. Thus the pool holds a history, or memory, of all the interactions that have occurred since the piece was first turned on.

Like the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, this project serves as a type of memorial, a constantly evolving record of change that honors the minuscule ways in which the slightest interactions—no matter how small or unintentional—have some impact. It is also an examination of how each person is, like the pool, a manifestation of everything that came before.

http://roberthodgin.com/magnetoquilt/

I liked this project, simply because it was a beautiful physical version of a generative piece of art. I think there is something in tangible forms that I respond to, over digital counterparts.

Silk

silk is a generative artwork by Yuri Vishnevsky.  The shape is rendered from a simple curve the user can draw on the screen. The direction of the wind can also be adjusted to create various shapes. There’s not much conceptual backing to it, but the final effect can be quite visually stunning

Iris Van Herpen

Iris Van Herpen in collaboration with architect Daniel Widrig create heartbreakingly intricate and fluid forms that are 3D printed to fit individual models that were shown at Paris fashion week. It must cost a small fortune and your first born child to manufacture, but totally worth it.

Continuum

Continuum, a project developed by Mary Huang, is actually an extremely slick application built in processing. With it, the user can trace primitive forms onto a mannequin that are transformed into a pattern for a dress. Exploring the concept of accessible couture, Continuum successfully lets users create their own dress while maintaining a distinctive and recognizable style that is the essence of what a cohesive fashion line is about. More info here

Michael HansMeyer – Computational Architecture

created by iterating a subdivision algorithm over and over again and then fabricating it out of cardboard. It looks like extremely thin layers are laser cut and stacked in order to create these ridiculously intricate columns.

Sandra Backlund Knitwear

okay so this isn’t exactly generative yet, but knitwear actually would be a great outlet for generative works. Since its simply a serious of a numbers and certain pattern instructions, (often sent to a machine), its a much better outlet for generating one seamless piece than creating patterns for fabric, that often are simply geometric. Sandra Backlund creates beautiful additive pieces, though is very closed mouth about her actual process

.MGX is a company which designs and fabricates various objects, fixtures, and furnishings using 3d printers. The objects are designed using genetic algorithms and the results are stunning. An important note is that materialise and .MGX have embraced the concept of mass customization and unique design. They were early adopters of this technology and idealogy and have amazing results.

Sabin+Jones Lab Studio is a group of designers and researchers at the University of Pennsylvania. Sabin is a designer and Jones a biologist. They support each others’ research with skills in complex 3d modeling and genetic algorithms.

Subblue is a site made by physicist Tom Beddard. Tom programs exceptional visually stimulating programs and includes source code on his site when possible.

Seed Drawings are drawings created by mechanical turkers which simulate one which a program could simulate.

—

Box Car 2D is a fun app which generates car using randomly chosen vectors (body) and circles (wheels) which are given random velocities. The program throws away cars that do poorly (do not finish the track or finish slowly) and throws out the data. Using that, eventually, the program creates increasingly better cars.

This is a fun app to watch for a few minutes due to the sheer ridiculousness of some of the cars. Sometimes, funny shaped cars work surprisingly well (didn’t catch a screenshot, but we saw  one wheeler with a huge wheel carry its tiny body to the finish line). Some are more sensible, especially toward the end of each run (shaped like motorcycles).

The author also has some nice write-ups explaining the algorithm and best cars.

—

This is a bit old, but was a project done by 2 friends for tigsource’s procedurally generated level contest. The simplicity and polish makes for a great game. The player does tricks on a sine wave which is randomly generated.

For my own project, I am also interested in creating a game of some sort.

Every game which was created for the mentioned contest is listed here.

—

Another one I liked from this contest was Dyson. In that game, you plant seeds on planets and try to maintain dominance from actually somewhat intelligent NPCs.

—

One more, Minus is less complex, but charming in its style and tranquility. As a bunny, you just keep jumping into the clouds (procedurally generated) and see how high you can get. It’s similar to iPhone game, Doodle Jump.

FORM+CODE- Parameterize: Chair

LINK: http://formandcode.com/code-examples/parameterize-chair

A quite simplistic, yet powerful example of using parametric modeling to produce several random

iterations within some basic design constraints. What if the parametric process considered the

placement of assembly hardware so that the chairs could be fabricated and used as a functional

object? What if the iterative process embraced some darwinian principles in which the itterations

where chosen to survive and influence future iterations based on how optimal there form was?

“Favorable” forms could be defined by ergonomics or other external forces that determine optimal

functionality or use.

Neri Oxman: Cartesian Wax

LINK: https://web.media.mit.edu/~neri/site/projects/cartesianwax/cartesianwax.html

“The project explores the notion of material organization as it is informed by structural and

environmental performance. A continuous tiling system is differentiated across its entire surface

area to accommodate a range of physical conditions of light transmission, heat flux, stored energy

modulation and structural support. The surface is thickened locally where it is structurally required

to support itself, and modulates its transparency according to the light conditions of its hosting

environment.”

Neri Oxman: On Designing Form

LINK: https://web.media.mit.edu/~neri/site/index.html

A little old, but still good. A lot of generative in one room here.

I stumbled upon Robert Hodgin’s website, and then realised that he was the artist that Alex cited as one of her inspirations for her kinect project (and upon further reading found out that he was a founder of the Barbarian Group which in turn made Cinder, which I did not know). I was floored by his examples of flocking, behavioural movements, as well as the rest of this generative art. Looking at this piece, as well as other similar works brought home for me the point that I have no experience working with that, sort of, canon of generative art – partical systems, physics libraries, algorithms, etc, largely because I think they scare me. Spending some time going into these examples, and seeing what algorithms are at the core, I have begun to realize that I need to spend some time really working with them because they are so powerful and interesting

New Knitter

In looking at projects, I’m surprised by my inability to find many wearable projects, especially given that knitting lends itself well to computation with stitches as pixels, working from top to bottom. The news knitter does use this property of knitting, taking a day’s worth of news, and generating a wearable snapshot of of that day. Conceptually I love it, making tangible the news, something that has very real implication on world, but has no physical form. As a finished object, I am not particularly fond of it — it is a very blocky, kind of ugly sweater. For this project the form is, appropriately, a vessel. I, personally, am more interested in the possibility of computation being used to create beautiful wearable forms, in which the physical form is the content.

I am interested in various growth simulations forming into objects that we can use in our daily lives. Something similar to nervous attack but used in a way to aesthetically shape furniture.

A good example would be http://i.materialise.com/blog/entry/5-amazing-full-sized-furniture-pieces-made-with-3d-printing The entry where the stool takes the form of a flock is extremely interesting. I’m wondering if any work can be done in particle systems to simulate this.

In addition, while researching on fluid simulations, I came across this, http://memo.tv/ofxmsafluid marked here for reference just in case the fluid idea in my head connects

I’ve seen a few wonderful processing 3d printing simulation of organic forms. http://www.michael-hansmeyer.com/projects/project4.html aswell as this awe generating piece http://www.sabin-jones.com/arselectronica.html

Lastly, my buddy’s work at www.supabold.com

3. mis.shap.en.ness [Processing]

“mis.shap.en.ness are the latest experiments by Reza Ali who we have covered on CAN a number of times in the past. The images below were created with a processing utilizing springs and particles. The program allows you to enter a string, then that string’s type is traced out, rendering its outline. Using the outlines consisting of points allow these points to be transformed into particles, connected (via springs) to other particles in their proximity creating mesmerising effects of leaking geometry.”

This is a beautiful project that allow you to generate unexpected pattern from input characters.

See more

2. Dazzled [Cinder, MaxMSP]

“Created by David Dalmazzo, Dazzled Project is an attempt to compose a generative particle environment that could at the same time create structures and sounds. The application uses both MaxMSP and Cinder via OSC bridge allowing sounds generated from max be fed directly into Cinder app which generates the visuals.”

Video:

I like this generation project. Both of the visualization and the sound generation are terrific.

1. Continuum [Processing]

“Continuum is the latest project by Mary Huang, past student of Design | Media Arts at UCLA, and Interaction Design at CIID. The project is an attempt to blend rapid fabrication, interactive software, and the accessibility of the web, to let individuals participate directly in the design and production process.”

Video is here:

This is just awesome! I am not sure if we can categorize this as generation, but letting people design their own clothes in such a simple way is genius. All you need to do is circle around in the software, and polygons will generated automatically to cover the body, as clothes. You can also fabricate your design into real clothes.  Fantastic!

Since I have my performance at Bakery Square coming up at the end of March, I will merge/mod my game event actions sending out OSC (generative sound) to a graphic score for a percussion ensemble to play live. These are my bookmarks for references.

my first quick test in OF

references



guitar hero is a natural graphical score with gaming


http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2007/01/gallery_of_musi.html

I think we’ve reached the point where we can stop calling them hacks now, but I’ll do it anyway.

I’m still not sure what this project is trying to do, but it sure is pretty.

As I see it this fits squarely into the beautiful quadrant of Wattenberg’s triangle. It’s nice to see some Kinect projects working in the realm of pure aesthetics.

Many of the projects up until now have been about technogeekery.

[flickr]

Thought I would share this for everyone.

http://visionlab.harvard.edu/silencing/

Seinfelled

According to the creator, “A step by step tutorial on how to make a photorealistic computer generated rendering of a dream I had. In the dream I was drunk or dizzy and I stumbled around in Jerry’s apartment.”

This piece rows of reflective mirrors that interact with a user’s movement when the person moves close to them.
I particularly liked the different moods it creates when you interact with the piece. It almost feels as if an entity is following and watching you as you walk past the mirrors. Yet, when you stand in front of the piece and play with it, the mirrors “play” back to you in response.

It would be even better if the mirrors could move around in addition to changing their orientation. This would be able to bring out the experience more so than non-moving mirrors (imagine the mirrors following you when you walk away from them!).

https://www.youtube.com/user/MediaArtTube#p/c/6C1909B96FB79A2A/21/6rhKIdt4LSE

This piece consists of a columns of drifting membranes that stop moving when a person stands in front of it.

I particularly liked this piece as a work of art. The layout and design of the membranes make the piece look like a work of art.In addition, the interaction is very subtle and graceful: the membranes grind slowly to a halt as a user stands in front of them. This interaction closely models how viewers of art pause to gaze at art in order to appreciate it. When users simply walk past the system, the membranes don’t slow down; this aspect forces users to pause and gaze at the piece in order to appreciate it.