Generative Art Installation by Katherine Gibson
Contents What is it? Site Research Audience Research Concept Exploration Development Final Design My Code My Installation
Page 3 Page 4 + 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 - 10 Page 11 + 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15
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What is it? 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. Philip Galanter
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Site Research John Napier Tower Merchiston John Napier of Merchiston 1550 – 1617 Mathematician Physicist Astronomer
John Napier is best known as the inventor of logarithms and spherical trigonometry also known as Napier's Rules of Circular Parts. He also invented the "Napier's bones" and made common the use of the decimal point in arithmetic and mathematics.
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Site The white walls reflect the light and brighten up the space. There is two floor lights and one ceiling spotlight facing towards the wall. There are two large wooden chairs that give the space a old fashioned ambiance. The narrow window lets in a small amount of natural light in a subtle way. The traditional stone walls on either side of the space give the space memories and add to the atmosphere.
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Audience Research About 12 people a minute go by the space and this varies throughout the day. Peak times are first thing in the morning and lunchtime. Students and staff rush through the space and rarely notice anything about the space as they are in a hurry to get to somewhere. My Installation must be intriguing to grab passers by attention and make them stop and think. I explored generative art involving movement, colour, information and meaning.
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Concept I would like to create an installation that makes passer by stop and think and be proud of being part of ‘Napier’. I hope to do this by incorporating John Napier's spherical trigonometry and creating a piece of art that draws you in and makes you think about who we are now and in the past and what we hope to be in the future.
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Exploring Movement
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Exploring Circular Form
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Exploring Spherical Forms
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Development of Design Ideas I sketched several ideas of spherical designs. I altered the code to change the position of the sphere and try a few variations of the design.
I used Napier red to represent the University and give a feeling of being part of something.
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Practical Considerations I evaluated the space to choose where my installation would be placed. Trial Projection Evaluation •
Lighting hugely affects the design and as a result I tried several variations of lighting and then decided to have all the lights in the space off.
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The projection size affects how the installation is viewed. After testing I decided on having the installation on one area of the wall rather than larger over more space.
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I finalised my design by testing different colours. I decided to have a red background and white sphere and text as it appears more inviting and attracts attention, 12
Final Design
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My Code Int num = 150; Ellipse e[] = new Ellipse[num]; //char[] chars = {'0','1','2','3','4','5','6','7','8','9','-','<'} void setup(){ size(650,650,P3D); for(int i = 0;i<num;i++) e[i] = new Ellipse(width/2,height/2,350,i); noFill();//(232); noSmooth(); // textFont(createFont("Veranda",14,true,chars)); // textMode(SCREEN); } void draw(){ background(204,0,51); for(int i = 0;i<num;i++) e[i].draw(); text("NISI SAPIENTIA FRUSTRA", 205, 7); text("Logarithms", 200, 100); text("Decimal Point", 470, 250); text("17264", 110, 500); text("29%", 500, 510); text("92.3%", 170, 300); text("Equality", 340, 550); text("Diversity", 150, 400); text("JOHN NAPIER", 270, 325); text("Learn it", 400, 420); text("Live it", 100, 220); text("1964", 400, 170); text("WITHOUT WISDOM ALL IS IN VAIN", 164, 640); textSize(20); } class Ellipse{ float x,y,z; PVector rot; int id; float dens = 0.1; float r = 100.0; float rate = 100.0; float speed = 0.02; int segno; Ellipse(float _x,float _y,float _z,int _id){ x=_x; y=_y; z=_z; id=_id; segno = (int)random(32); rot = new PVector(random(-1,1),random(-1,1),random(-1,1)); } void follow(){ x+=(mouseX-x)/(20.0); y+=(mouseY-y)/(20.0); } void draw(){ //follow(); rot.add(
noise((id+frameCount)/rate)*speed, noise((id+34.0+frameCount)/rate)*speed, noise((id+409.0+frameCount)/rate)*speed ); pushMatrix(); translate(x,y,z); pushMatrix(); rotateX(rot.x); rotateY(rot.y); rotateZ(rot.z); int cnt = 0; beginShape(); for(float f = -PI;f<PI;f+=dens){ float X = cos(f)*r; float Y = sin(f)*r; if(abs(cnt-segno)<5){ // pushStyle(); // fill(255,map(modelZ(X,Y,0),-r,r,0,255)); // text("<-"+segno,modelX(X,Y,0),modelY(X,Y,0)); // popStyle(); stroke(#ffdddd,map(modelZ(X,Y,0),-r,r,1,180-abs(cnt-segno)*30)); }else{ stroke(#ffffff,map(modelZ(X,Y,0),-r,r,1,60)); } strokeWeight(map(modelZ(X,Y,0),-r,r,5,5)); vertex(X,Y,0); cnt++; } endShape(CLOSE); if(frameCount%2==0) segno++; if(segno>=cnt){ segno=0; } /* cnt = 0; for(float f = -PI;f<PI;f+=dens){ if(cnt==segno){ stroke(#ff0000,map(modelZ(X,Y,0),-r,r,0,200)); float X = cos(f)*r; float Y = sin(f)*r; strokeWeight(map(modelZ(X,Y,0),-r,r,5,1.8)); line(X,Y,lerp(X,0,0.1),lerp(Y,0,0.1)); } cnt++; } */ popMatrix(); popMatrix(); } }
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My Installation
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For more information please go to http://katherinelouisagibson.tumblr.com/
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