Generative art: where to start
Instead of introducing
Generative art, like any topic in the world of technology, can be daunting if you’ve never tried it before. But I think everyone can appreciate the concept of artwork that literally creates itself.
What is generative art?
Generative art refers to any artistic practice where an artist programmer creates a process, such as a procedural device, which is then triggered with a certain level of autonomy and ultimately creates a work of art.
Thus, we can say that this is art, created with the help of code with one distinguishing feature: it in one way or another includes a self-regulating or autonomous system.
An autonomous system independently determines the characteristics of a work of art.
Randomness
Randomness is a type of autonomous system.
By adding random events to your code art, you end up with a different, completely unique piece of art every time you run the script.
There are also more ordered autonomous systems. For example, Mandelbrot fractalderived from a deceptively simple equation.
Chaos and order
A work of art becomes a collaboration between a computer and an artist.
When using an autonomous system, the artist relinquishes control over creativity, and the computer does it for him. But at the same time, the artist will be involved in tuning the system to obtain more desirable results.
The process involves experimentation and serendipity, which fundamentally changes the role of both the programmer and the artist.
Why try it?
Not all pet projects are created equal, and generative art may not be what you tend to spend your time on. But if you dare, you can count on benefits:
Experience. This is a cool opportunity to hone old skills and learn new ones. This list includes algorithms, data structures, and new languages.
Tangible results. In the world of programming, we rarely see our efforts yielding physically tangible results. You can print generative art and hang it in your living room.
Spectacular projects. I think everyone has had the experience of explaining their pet project, when you add a lot of emotional flavor to words just to convey the efforts and results of the project. Generative art speaks for itself. Most people will be overwhelmed by your creation, even if they cannot fully understand the methods.
Where to begin?
First, the idea, then the technology. What kind of object will it be? Graphics, music, or even video? Once you have an idea for an object, move on to technology.
What are the artists using now?
Processing… Java-based programming environment. Artists love Processing because it makes it easy to make changes to your “sketch” or program and see what’s going on. Processing is also highly programmable and focused on creating visual art.
JavaScript, p5.js… The p5.js library focuses on making programming accessible to artists, designers, and newbies. p5.js wraps the Canvas API and simplifies a lot of math. The library is geared towards visual arts, but you can also use it to work with sound or video.
Any other language you like, with additional module libraries for a specific type of art.
Where to look for inspiration?
DevArt – a celebration of art created with code.
Glitch – a development environment that lives in your browser and deploys the code as you type.
p5 demos – examples of using p5.js for generative art, graphics and design.
Community сreative-dev in Slack.
Artists: Aaron koblin, Casey reas, Harley turan, Lauren McCarthy, Shirley wu, Zach lieberman…
Resources
It doesn’t matter if you are a beginner or an art / engineering professional who is simply intrigued by the mesmerizing patterns of generative art, here are some ways to learn something new.
Books
Conferences
Ksenia Chudakova
Technical Writer
