post 2: A review on “What Is Generative Art? Complexity Theory as a Context for Art Theory”

This blog post refers to Philip Galanter article named “What Is Generative Art? Complexity Theory as a Context for Art Theory”. Philip Galanter constructs a variety of generative software and hardware systems and he is considered as a generative artist. In this article he defines generative art and describes a set of rules that is the basis of generative art. Although he thinks that computers are not required for this kind of art, digital technologies play an important role in production and dissemination of these kinds of art works. A digital user interface would facilitate interactivity for more than one user; that is why nowadays artists prefer to use digital form of generative art. 

Philip Galanter defines generative art as  “Generative art refers to any art practice where the artist uses a system, such as a set of natural language rules, a computer program, a machine, or other procedural invention, which is set into motion with some degree of autonomy contributing to or resulting in a completed work of art”. In this meaning a piece of art work is creative and the outcome is unpredictable. He claims that generative art is as old as art itself and at the same time is separate from any specific ideology or art theory. “It is simply a way of making art, and in that respect it is something of a blank slate”; generative art happens when the artist give some part of control to another system so as the result would differ from an art creation of spontaneous decisions of an artist.

 After he tries to define generative art, he describes the use of systems that are very important in production of this kind of art. By use of computers, randomization is the most used technique among artists. He explains the complexity theory and order and disorder of complex systems as principles in review of various systems. Complex systems do not refer as complicated in meaning; on the contrary, it refers to various small parts and elements which interact with similar parts. This leads to a self organizing system with no external control. That is why these systems are often unpredictable and the result might be dramatic and random.

The strong point of this article is to explain generative art and a definition of it inclusively. Many articles referenced this definition to talk about their point of view, so I think he was quite successful to generate a good and comprehensive definition for this term. Another interesting point is that he points out with the intention of generative art which is not necessarily dependant on the digital technology to be generative. Generative art can be created without computers. For instance, an artist, William Latham used an evolutionary system on paper then he changed it on the road to use by computer quite late. However, computers facilitate some ways of production for a generative artist. These sorts of art by adopting computers by means of natural processing and algorithms opens its ways through information and communication technology and have a great social and cultural influence. The way he explain about generative art and goes back to its history, examples from artists such as Sol Lewitt and Hans Haacke and many other examples of various artists and their works clarifies the understanding of generative art.

In this article the conceptions are presented by clear examples of life and these examples are very helpful to well connect various parts of concepts in the article. For instance, complex chaotic system is compared to real life phenomena. The uncertainty we always face toward the weather prediction and surprises might happen in nature make artificial random systems close to the real life. By functions of ordered and disordered systems and their combination to produce a strong generative art he describes the notions of an effective complexity. At some point he concludes that complex systems are not necessarily better than simple systems to produce the generative art. Arrangement of ordered and disordered, and simple and complex is desirable to produce an effective art practice.

Reference:

Galanter, Philip. (2003). What is Generative Art? Complexity Theory as Context for Art Theory. In GA2003 – 6th Generative Art Conference.

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Post 1: Review on some articles for Weeks 44 and 45.

Reading the articles for the first and second week of the course, I chose those related to multimedia and digital art to write and review. Talking about digital art while its background as a form of digital media is studied would be influential to understand its creation, features and trends. To understand better the trends of digital art and history, it is negligible to have a look at the trend of web and its revolution from a pure science to art and design. Before designers invade the web and graphical browsers produce, web was seen just as a source of content. Form did not have a role in the eyes of structuralists. After production of Mosaic as the first graphical browser for the web, designers were more involved in creation of web pages. As images and later on videos were emerged to the web content, web began to have huge audience as a source of information and entertainment. Thus, web commenced to have visual communication with users by interplaying of words and images (Bolter & Gromala 2003).

One of the main results of this visual communication is considering user experience toward media. As audience was attracted by form and content of web pages, producers began to see how to facilitate the content with visual means to be able to send the message clearly. Additionally, how users are influenced by the message and how they are affected by it, they began to take care of user experience design. Thus the relationship between digital technology and the user gained attention by then. In this regard, digital art follows the same logic: “such digital art can be the purest form of experimental design”. In fact, the trend of new technologies show that nowadays it is pointless to separate form and content from each other. Art and design today is the inseparable part of information technologies especially those aim to have bigger audience. Interactive experiences now are part of an effective design and in many cases from digital artists’ point of view, interaction is considered to be influential in their successful design (Bolter & Gromala 2003).

As digital media is a convergence of computing and media technologies, we should consider the features of computing and better to say numerical data on media. Digital media as the features of production is different from traditional media; existing media is translated to numerical data to be accessible by computers. New media or digital media is the result of this revolution which made them computable. This feature gives some principles to new media that should be understood by those who is working with modern media technologies. I discuss the principles of new media here because understanding them is necessary for discussion over digital art. As artist of an digital art form accordingly handle numerical data as well (Manovich, 2001).

According to Manovich (2001), principles of new media consist of five factors:

1. Numerical Representation All digital media objects are numerical it means that they are made of digital codes. These media objects are either produced by computer or converted from analog media sources. Accordingly new media objects are described mathematically and also their algorithm can be manipulated, it means by manipulation of algorithm they van be changed easily. “In short, media becomes programmable”.

2. Modularity Media objects are independent by composing particular elements. Each media element like picture, sound, shapes and so on are a collection of samples like pixels, polygons, scripts and such. It means that if the scale of these objects changes they stay identical and have the same behavior as they have “fractal structure”.

3. Automation By means of modularity and numerical features of new media, it is possible to remove human from the process and make media creation to be automotive. For instance removing noise form a sound tract can be done automatically by special software.

4. Variability Again modularity and numerical features of new media has an effect on the creation of new media which makes it variable. The result is not a fixed object, can be changed and have numerous versions. An example has brought here is hypermedia which allows users to create and manipulate the flow of information by change of relational links.

5. Transcoding The author of the article names this feature as the most substantial consequence of media’s computerization. He declares that although computerized media is a form of computer data, it is still structured and understandable by human. This is the result of transcoding which is one way to software theory and another way to new media theory. For instance, interface and database, as practices of human-computer interface is a way to present the new media objects.

Considering all the features of new media would help to understand the basic components of a digital artifact or object. Nowadays, an artist who aims to create an installation by means of new media or simply create a digital object needs to be aware of these principles which make the process of creation totally different form traditional ways of media production.

References:

Bolter, Jay David; Gromala, Diane (2003). Windows and Mirrors: Interaction Design, Digital Art, and the Myth of Transparency. Massassuchets: MIT Press.

Manovich, Lev. (2001). The Language of New Media. – Chapter “What is New Media?” (pp. 43-65). Massassuchets: MIT Press.

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