1. Lichen photography by Jessica Rosencrantz

What generative art assignment would be complete without the inclusion of Mother Nature herself? Lichen photographs by Jessica Rosenkrantz, see complete photo collection here: http://n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com/blog/?p=1950 — she creates a great deal of generative art and sculptures (e.g. unique lamps or jewelry) so it is interesting to observe how her perception of mother nature interweaves with the visual and algorithmic output of her various works.

She writes:

Some people describe a lichen as a fungus that has taken up farming, growing sugars in little algae patches throughout it’s body, in contrast to the decomposing habits of normal fungi. If fungi can be described as living inside their food, then lichen are essentially fungi turned inside out. Their food lives inside of them.

But I find it more intriguing to think of lichen as a fungus trying to be a plant. Like a plant it has photosynthesizing portions which produce food (the algae or cyanobacteria) but also structural components (the fungi) which protect and arrange the photosynthetic elements. As a photosynthesizing organism, lichen are under a lot of the same constraints as plants. They have to effectively collect sunlight and water. They have to be rooted to something, they have to resist gravity… Correspondingly, lichen have independently evolved very similar body plans to plants…..despite have an entirely different chemical and biological makeup.

2. “A Confidence of Verticies” by Brandom Morse

[flickr video=2399356089]

Buildings at generative war, the ebbs and flow of their fight creates natural drama and sympathies. This implementation runs in single sequence, but one could imagine a version where each building is imbued with various ranges of characteristics and each blow has a distinct probability of success. Citiscapes brought to life with the flaws and strengths of boxers. I enjoy the way this project unifies generative behavior with the sense of interacting agents. It also introduced the idea of curating the output of generative art, rather than just always selecting whatever the algorithm provides. Jer Thorp had an assistive tool for designing parks that he would use to breed possible design solutions, but he would subselect the best at each stage and “breed” them together. Artist-technology collaborations.
Source: http://www.generatorx.no/20080409/structural-tension-brandom-morse/
Various additional works: http://www.coplanar.org/work/

3. “Decorative Growth Pattern” by Allison Kudla

Finally we join computational art with Mother Nature in Allison Kudla’s “Growth Pattern,” also currently on display at the Miller Gallery on campus. Here she prepares biological squares of geometric leaf cuttings in a nutrient solution, visually reminiscent of spanish and moroccan tiles. Some cuttings sprout new leafs, others with less complete sterilization sprout fungus and by the end of the installation, they all die. Visiting it on a single day does not tell the story, but over its lifespan it becomes unpredictable, beautiful and evocative.

Additional images and details: http://allisonx.com/2011/01/growth-patterns/