aliot-Reading03

Something I like that exhibits effective complexity is grocery stores. Between crystalline lattice and the the total randomness of gas particles, grocery stores lean heavily towards total randomness (maybe a 70/100, where 100 is random and 0 is ordered). Regardless of what grocery store you go to there are infinite possibilities for where isles are, how they are oriented and how fruits and vegetables are displayed. Every grocery store is different from the last but at the same time, one can easily forget that they are in a Giant Eagle in Pittsburgh and not the WalMart in Virginia.
Here is a screenshot of image search “grocery store interior”:

Galanter effectively articulates what I’ve felt about a lot of generative art. In relying on things beyond our control as artists to make work– to remove ourselves and our hand in some way from a creation, and to remove our subjectivity– is an inherent statement. Generative art, I’ve always thought, isn’t usually focused on the artist’s rendition of something beautiful and it’s not usually focused on the craftsmanship and labor of creation. Generative art, then is in a direct conversation with more traditional art forms and must inherently take a sarcastic point of view. But then again as I am exposed to more forms of generative art, I think that the interpretation can perhaps replace these ideals of beauty. Also, combined with other methods of working, the inherent impersonal nature of generative art can be used to make a different statement. In all, I think about both sides of the argument and inherently the generative nature of generative art is quite postmodern, but the way artists pick and choose how to use it and in what context to display it broadens the statement the art can make.