JuliaTeitelbaum-LookingOutwards-1
Discovery 1: Connections
“Connections” is an experiment made with Processing. The particles in the animation move randomly and connect with each other at a certain distance. I like this project because although it is simple and small scale, it’s really well executed. I love the aesthetic—color contrast, line weight, speed of animation—it makes it hypnotic. I also like it because it ties into ideas I have for visualizations about relationships between people.
The creator of the project is Lucas Cabral, a multimedia artist from Brazil. The project is not particularly well documented (likely because it is small scale), but based on Cabral’s other sketches, I think the intent was just to experiment with Processing and how to make the simple algorithm he used work well (aesthetically). I also think Cabral was probably inspired by some of the demos of the Processing language (the ones that come with the software when you download it) since they tend to have similar simplicity and often use relatively simple algorithms to create dynamic and hypnotic animations.
Discovery 2: Blackbar
The Creative Applications Network describes the game Blackbar as “a sci-fi story of a dystopian future told as a word puzzle.” It a smartphone app that is a combination of a text adventure and a riddle. I admire the project because although it is making a political statement, the statement balances out with the game itself. I also like it because it seems like a project where the creator worked out of their head—taking their idea and making it work on an iPhone, rather than going along with existing paradigms of UI or genre for iPhone games.
Neven Morgan and his friend James Moore collaborated to create the game (which launched a week ago.) The game is a dark satire, exploring the implications of government surveillance, particularly PRISM. The nature of the story and the fictional world of the story were both inspired by Orwell, but likely by other dystopian literature (but I might tweet Neven Morgan about this and also ask about how he and James Moore collaborated, because I couldn’t find that information anywhere.)
Discovery 3: Cindermedusae
Cindermedusae is a program which generatively creates and animates 3D models of jellyfish. This project caught my interest at first because it combined a drawn, ink and paper aesthetic, with 3D modeling. The program also interests me because I’m fascinated by how algorithms can generate natural forms, especially in three dimensions.
This project really impresses me on a technical and aesthetic level, and the process documentation is practically art in itself. However, aside from awe, it really didn’t draw much of an emotional reaction from me. If I actually played with the program, I think I might have been delighted, but I think that the creator could have put more thought into how they presented the program’s output (maybe showing how the jellyfish change, considering the background more) or framed the concept (perhaps with some amount of story?).
The project was created by one artist, Marcin Ignac, whose work is inspired by the complexity of biological structures. In particular the Cindermedusae project was inspired by the work of Ernst Haeckel. Haeckel a German naturalist, illustrator, and scientist. Looking at the medusae, Haeckel’s influence is clear. Understanding how the project was inspired by Haeckel (and reading his Wikipedia page) actually makes me more impressed with it. I can imagine this being something Haeckel might have created if he had the sort of tools that exist now because of its focus on detail, biological structure, and mathematical relationships. Ignac’s work takes it further by encoding variables in biological structure and capturing motion as well.