Data Vapour 250806

Voronoi Skeletons – Marc Fornes

A hard drive stream of computational consciousness:

Over at the Theverymany Marc Fornes continues his dialogue with complex forms as architectural models and even sketches for furniture using Rhinoscript – check out the self-similar VoroniSkeletons and the speculative insectiodal furniture propositions with accompanying technical annotations.

‘My 12 favourite demos’ sees Toxi list his 12 favourite demo scene creations while explaining the importance of the scene for him in learning the staple of programming skills that we now accept as the fundamentals for producing computational art and design. He say’s ‘the demoscene arose as informal and highly competitive platform for creative expressions using software long before the (relatively) recent (re?)current mainstream interest in “computational design/art” errupted.’

Along with graffiti and street art, the demo scene is a kind of evolving hermetic folk art, which retains its vitality, like so many things, through aspects of restriction and constraint (in this case filesize limitation and hardware).

Randform had been radiating goodness for 5 months or so now, the topics are varied and interesting revolving around ‘math, physics, art, and design’. Symmetries IV, nicely explores aspects of tessellation in art with the incredible work of the Alhambra, and in science with the quasi-periodic tillings of mathematician Roger Penrose. Other highlights include space-invader carpets, Swiss Bricks and Giant Steps.

Check out David Whitaker’s colour algorithms in petri dishes, using a ‘machine aesthetic’ he produces optical works which in his own words produce, ‘combinations of colour, which shift about predetermined directions and are always optically regenerating themselves’.

Adaptivelandscapes houses the work of Christian Marc Schmidt, a collection of Landscape Abstractions, Path Studies and information Art. A successful optically informed visualisation arrives in the form of ‘41° 59′ 10″ N/87° 54′ 51″ W 1975-2004’ where monthly temperatures form the basis of structure and colour. Elsewhere we find a computational homage to our friend Joseph Albers and his squares.

Finally algorithmic botanists will be happy to know that the classic The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants is available in entirety online to download. Dr. P. Prusinkiewicz’s book, originally published in 1990, was the founding work in the field of L-systems and other algorithmic modelling of plants. Natureisdata.