Randomness

Revision as of 17:07, 16 July 2011 (view source)

Revision as of 17:18, 16 July 2011 (view source)

Line 79:

In 1962, Noll published a technical memorandum at Bell Labs entitled "Patterns by 7090," the number referring to the IBM 7090 digital computer. He explained a series of mathematical and programming techniques that use random values to draw "haphazard patterns" to a Carlson 4020 Microfilm Printer. The eight patterns documented in the memo are the basis for his Gaussian Quadratic image, which was exhibited in the 1965 exhibition. Noll used existing subroutines of the printer to draw a sequence of lines to connect a series of x- and y-coordinates that he calculated and stored inside an array. The x-coordinates in the array were generated by a custom subroutine he wrote called WNG (White Noise Generator), which produced random values within the range of its parameters, and the y-coordinates were set using a quadratic equation. Through this series of patterns, Noll explored a tension between order and disorder, regularity and random values.

−

In 1965, Nake created his Fields of Rectangular Cross Hatchings series, which succeeds through pairing ordered patterns with random placement. Nake explained the way random values are used in the images:

+

In 1965, Nake created his ''Fields of Rectangular Cross Hatchings'' series, which succeeds through pairing ordered patterns with random placement. Nake explained the way random values are used in the images:

<blockquote>Within a given (arbitrarily chosen) image size, a random number of hatchings were generated. Each one of them was determined by the following random variables: location (x, y), size (a, b), orientation of lines within rectangle (horizontal or vertical), number of lines, pen. So for each rectangle there were seven random numbers determining its details.</blockquote>

−

After the first wave of visual images were created on plotters and microfilm at universities and research labs, a few professional artists independently started to gain access to computers and use them in their practice. The artists with the most success in integrating a computer into their work had previously created drawings with logical systems. These artists continue to use computers in their work to this day. Manfred Mohr started as a jazz musician and later studied art in Paris; he started writing software to create drawings in 1969 at the Meteorological Institute of Paris during the night after the researchers left for the day. Edward Zajec studied painting in Slovenia and the United States; he starting working with computers while teaching at Carleton College in 1968. Other artists who worked seriously with computers in the late 1960s, either individually or with technical collaborators, include Lillian Schwartz, Colette Bangert, Stan Vanderbeek, and Harold Cohen. All of them employed random numbers in their early works created with software.

+

After the first wave of visual images were created on plotters and microfilm at universities and research labs, a few professional artists independently started to gain access to computers and use them in their practice. The artists with the most success integrating a computer into their work had previously created drawings with logical systems. These artists continue to use computers in their work to this day. Manfred Mohr started as a jazz musician and later studied art in Paris; he began writing software to create drawings in 1969, at the Meteorological Institute of Paris, during the night after researchers had left for the day. Edward Zajec studied painting in Slovenia and the United States; he starting working with computers while teaching at Carleton College in 1968. Other artists who worked seriously with computers in the late 1960s, either individually or with technical collaborators, include Lillian Schwartz, Colette Bangert, Stan Vanderbeek, and Harold Cohen. All of them employed random numbers in their early works created with software.

−

In 1971, Mohr's work was featured in "Une Esthétique Programmée" at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. This exhibition is distinguished as the first solo show of artworks created with a computer to be shown at a museum. Random values were used extensively in the creation of the work. Charles Csuri's ''Random War'' (1967) is another early notable work of computer art to use random values. Like much of Csuri's early computer work and unique in relation to his contemporaries, the work is figurative rather than abstract. This plotter drawing is comprised of outlined military figures patterned off of the little green army men toys popular at the time. Each figure, named after a real person, is placed randomly on the page and given a random status: dead, wounded, or missing. The solders of one army are drawn in red and the other in black; the names and status of each soldier appear at the top of the drawing. In general terms, Csuri's work comments on the often arbitrary nature of war through both its form and content; more specifically, with his reliance on random number generation, Csuri gestures toward the days of computers and random numbers, and their inextricable link to the Cold War.

+

In 1971, Mohr's work was featured in "Une Esthétique Programmée" at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. This exhibition is distinguished as the first solo show of artworks created with a computer to be shown at a museum. Random values are used extensively in the creation of the work. Charles Csuri's ''Random War'' (1967) is another early notable work of computer art to use random values. Like much of Csuri's early computer work and unique in relation to his contemporaries, the work is figurative rather than abstract. This plotter drawing comprises outlined military figures, patterned off of the little green army men toys popular at the time. Each figure, named after a real person, is placed randomly on the page and given a random status: dead, wounded, or missing. The solders of one army are drawn in red and the other in black; the names and status of each soldier appear at the top of the drawing. In general terms, Csuri's work comments on the often arbitrary nature of war through both its form and content; more specifically, with his reliance on random number generation, Csuri gestures toward the days of computers and random numbers, and their inextricable link to the Cold War.

While the first decade of computer-generated art was well documented in magazines, books, and exhibition catalogs, there are fewer source materials from the 1970s as public interest veered and the energy needed to publish and exhibition waned. Later in the decade as computer graphics started to make their way into advertising and films. The 1982 film ''Tron'' is a landmark in the history of computation and aesthetics. This film pushed graphics to a new aesthetic level and therefore revealed the limitations of computer imagery at that time. Specifically, ''Tron'''s images are purely geometric and cold; they lack the organic qualities of our natural world. Ken Perlin, one of the programmers for the graphics in ''Tron,'' was frustrated with the clean look. Later, in 1983, he developed a technique called Perlin Noise to generate organic textures that have a random appearance but are fully controllable to allow for careful design. Perlin Noise allows computer graphics models to have the subtle irregularities of real objects; it is used to create hard surfaces such as rocks and mountains and softer systems like fire and clouds. By the 1990s, it was used extensively in Hollywood special-effects films and had been incorporated into most off-the-shelf modeling software.

From Maze

Revision as of 17:18, 16 July 2011

Views

Personal tools

Navigation

Search

Toolbox

@@ Line 79: / Line 79: @@
 In 1962, Noll published a technical memorandum at Bell Labs entitled "Patterns by 7090," the number referring to the IBM 7090 digital computer. He explained a series of mathematical and programming techniques that use random values to draw "haphazard patterns" to a Carlson 4020 Microfilm Printer. The eight patterns documented in the memo are the basis for his Gaussian Quadratic image, which was exhibited in the 1965 exhibition. Noll used existing subroutines of the printer to draw a sequence of lines to connect a series of x- and y-coordinates that he calculated and stored inside an array. The x-coordinates in the array were generated by a custom subroutine he wrote called WNG (White Noise Generator), which produced random values within the range of its parameters, and the y-coordinates were set using a quadratic equation. Through this series of patterns, Noll explored a tension between order and disorder, regularity and random values.
-In 1965, Nake created his Fields of Rectangular Cross Hatchings series, which succeeds through pairing ordered patterns with random placement. Nake explained the way random values are used in the images:
+In 1965, Nake created his ''Fields of Rectangular Cross Hatchings'' series, which succeeds through pairing ordered patterns with random placement. Nake explained the way random values are used in the images:
 <blockquote>Within a given (arbitrarily chosen) image size, a random number of hatchings were generated. Each one of them was determined by the following random variables: location (x, y), size (a, b), orientation of lines within rectangle (horizontal or vertical), number of lines, pen. So for each rectangle there were seven random numbers determining its details.</blockquote>
-After the first wave of visual images were created on plotters and microfilm at universities and research labs, a few professional artists independently started to gain access to computers and use them in their practice. The artists with the most success in integrating a computer into their work had previously created drawings with logical systems. These artists continue to use computers in their work to this day. Manfred Mohr started as a jazz musician and later studied art in Paris; he started writing software to create drawings in 1969 at the Meteorological Institute of Paris during the night after the researchers left for the day. Edward Zajec studied painting in Slovenia and the United States; he starting working with computers while teaching at Carleton College in 1968. Other artists who worked seriously with computers in the late 1960s, either individually or with technical collaborators, include Lillian Schwartz, Colette Bangert, Stan Vanderbeek, and Harold Cohen. All of them employed random numbers in their early works created with software.
+After the first wave of visual images were created on plotters and microfilm at universities and research labs, a few professional artists independently started to gain access to computers and use them in their practice. The artists with the most success integrating a computer into their work had previously created drawings with logical systems. These artists continue to use computers in their work to this day. Manfred Mohr started as a jazz musician and later studied art in Paris; he began writing software to create drawings in 1969, at the Meteorological Institute of Paris, during the night after researchers had left for the day. Edward Zajec studied painting in Slovenia and the United States; he starting working with computers while teaching at Carleton College in 1968. Other artists who worked seriously with computers in the late 1960s, either individually or with technical collaborators, include Lillian Schwartz, Colette Bangert, Stan Vanderbeek, and Harold Cohen. All of them employed random numbers in their early works created with software.
-In 1971, Mohr's work was featured in "Une Esthétique Programmée" at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. This exhibition is distinguished as the first solo show of artworks created with a computer to be shown at a museum. Random values were used extensively in the creation of the work. Charles Csuri's ''Random War'' (1967) is another early notable work of computer art to use random values. Like much of Csuri's early computer work and unique in relation to his contemporaries, the work is figurative rather than abstract. This plotter drawing is comprised of outlined military figures patterned off of the little green army men toys popular at the time. Each figure, named after a real person, is placed randomly on the page and given a random status: dead, wounded, or missing. The solders of one army are drawn in red and the other in black; the names and status of each soldier appear at the top of the drawing. In general terms, Csuri's work comments on the often arbitrary nature of war through both its form and content; more specifically, with his reliance on random number generation, Csuri gestures toward the days of computers and random numbers, and their inextricable link to the Cold War.
+In 1971, Mohr's work was featured in "Une Esthétique Programmée" at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. This exhibition is distinguished as the first solo show of artworks created with a computer to be shown at a museum. Random values are used extensively in the creation of the work. Charles Csuri's ''Random War'' (1967) is another early notable work of computer art to use random values. Like much of Csuri's early computer work and unique in relation to his contemporaries, the work is figurative rather than abstract. This plotter drawing comprises outlined military figures, patterned off of the little green army men toys popular at the time. Each figure, named after a real person, is placed randomly on the page and given a random status: dead, wounded, or missing. The solders of one army are drawn in red and the other in black; the names and status of each soldier appear at the top of the drawing. In general terms, Csuri's work comments on the often arbitrary nature of war through both its form and content; more specifically, with his reliance on random number generation, Csuri gestures toward the days of computers and random numbers, and their inextricable link to the Cold War.
 While the first decade of computer-generated art was well documented in magazines, books, and exhibition catalogs, there are fewer source materials from the 1970s as public interest veered and the energy needed to publish and exhibition waned. Later in the decade as computer graphics started to make their way into advertising and films. The 1982 film ''Tron'' is a landmark in the history of computation and aesthetics. This film pushed graphics to a new aesthetic level and therefore revealed the limitations of computer imagery at that time. Specifically, ''Tron'''s images are purely geometric and cold; they lack the organic qualities of our natural world. Ken Perlin, one of the programmers for the graphics in ''Tron,'' was frustrated with the clean look. Later, in 1983, he developed a technique called Perlin Noise to generate organic textures that have a random appearance but are fully controllable to allow for careful design. Perlin Noise allows computer graphics models to have the subtle irregularities of real objects; it is used to create hard surfaces such as rocks and mountains and softer systems like fire and clouds. By the 1990s, it was used extensively in Hollywood special-effects films and had been incorporated into most off-the-shelf modeling software.