Generative Art: Algorithms as Artistic Tool

by Sara L. Diamond, James R. Parker (Foreword by)

Overview

Generative art, a relatively new form of art, is the art of the algorithm where an artist must carefully design the nature of their art work and then instruct a computer to implement the vision. It is an important transformational art technology, well-positioned to inform the expressive realm of artificial intelligence. J.R. Parker's book Generative Art: Algorithms as Artistic Tool presents generative art principles, and “Processing” sketchbook programming lessons in the same book. It presents a way to create generative art by combining the use of creative coding with art and design best practices. Readers have access to code used in the book through the book's web site at genart.ca, and video podcasts tutorials are also available for each chapter at durvile.com.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781988824383
Publisher:	Durvile Publications
Publication date:	12/15/2019
Series:	Art & Artists Series , #6
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.41(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.68(d)

About the Author

Dr. James R. Parker studied mathematics and computer science before ending up as a Professor of Art at the University of Calgary. His expertise ranges from computer simulation, image process-ing, artificial intelligence, game design, and generative art. When asked, he claims to be an expert in ‘complex interacting systems', but don't ask him to tie a half hitch. He lives on a small ranch in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

Read an Excerpt

Computers were originally built to do repetitive calculations with a high degree of reliability. Humans, you see, get bored and tired. Having a person do the same kind of arithmetic over and over again leads to fatigue and errors. The original solution was to have the same calculation performed by more than one person and then compare the answers. Correct answers tend to agree with each other, but mistakes are likely to be different. Mechanical calculators tend to either work or not, and it's pretty clear when they do not. Computers are the same way. Because of their origin, computers have one essential property to keep in mind: Computers can only manipulate numbers. Of course, humans have written millions of programs that hide this fact. Computers can recognize voices and speech commands, can identify faces, can play chess, and do millions of things that appear to be non-numerical. The software hides what is happening underneath. To get a computer to create a picture or music, we must devise some sort of code that allows pictures and music to be made into numbers. Truly, at the lowest levels of abstraction computers only handle numbers. People see computers using letters and words, for example, every day. A keyboard is fundamental to a computer, and almost all computers have them. Surely, computers can manipulate letters. No, not unless a method is devised to convert the symbols we see as letters and the keys we press into numbers. Then the computer can manipulate the numbers. This is an encoding, and computers use many of them. Characters are just one of the first that was devised, and so it shall be the first one discussed.

Table of Contents

Foreword, Sara Diamond
Preface 2 Introduction


Chapter 1 Generative Art and Computers
Chapter 2 Visual Coding
Chapter 3 Randomness
Chapter 4 Curves
Chapter 5 Images
Chapter 6 Animation
Chapter 7 Interface
Chapter 8 Net Art and Web Art
Chapter 9 Three Dimensions
Chapter 10 Down the Rabbit Hole


About the author and cover artist


Colour illustrations and gallery pages

Editorial Reviews

“In an era in which Artificial Intelligence is positioned as both existential threat and transformational opportunity this book uses computational tools to augment and express human imagination, without supplanting human expression and experimentation.” — Sara Diamond PhD, President, OCAD University, Toronto.

From the Publisher