The twigs are all positioned and sized w/ code. The eggs shape was made by hand, but positioned w/ code. In the future I plan to further randomize the shape, color and characteristic of each twig.

Behold, my very first generative comp. The image of a neon hot pink, scribbled, slightly-rotated square popped into my head one day. Maybe I’ve been listening to too much Justice. Made w/ Actionscript 3 and the Bezier curve fitting function built into Tweener.

So, how does someone have the commitment to create a masterpiece? You would have to be an expert in your medium, and have the longevity to work on something (and like it) for an extended period of time. It’s easy to struggle with commitment when working on projects. There are so many reasons to quit. Good ideas are hard enough to find. Most, when realized are less impressive than when conceived. Others surprise you, and turn into something different than originally planned. I am in awe of people, like Harris, who are this committed to their work. It’s not easy to do something amazing, even if you are uber-talented.

Random Math + color, line & shape continue to be my muse. I aspire to create things like Robert Hodgin. Perhaps it’s time to return to what I know best. To switch drawing tools… to put down the pen or brush and return to the keyboard. My hope is that I won’t spend too much time waffling about medium.

I took this photo last fall and it’s been the inspiration for my next set of experiments here. I plan on exploring the color palette and makeup of these walnuts. I’ll probably use a mix of generative art w/ ActionScript and possibly some watercolor or silkscreen prints down the road. I’m doing this because I’m inspired by systems that exist in nature. The breakdown of these walnuts are part of natures plan, much like how seeds grow and flowers bloom.

There are mathematical patterns in nature. Each seed is designed the same. Yet there are random elements that allow them all to look different. The forces in nature play within a set amount of rules, but the variables make each of these walnuts unique. In my opinion this is largely what creates beauty in nature.

The first experiment will be pretty simple and have to do w/ circles of varying size and color that will emulate the layers of these walnuts. Also, I’m kind of just using the walnuts as a starting point, who knows where I’ll end up.

The analog process was fun and the whole reason for this exercise. The warm sound and big cables were fun to mess around with. I could’ve achieved the same result w/ my audio editing program on my mac and my computer mic, but I wanted to see how the analog process was different from what I’m used to.

It’s important to mention the difference between sampling and constant drag. Digital sampling is how I, and most of the world, enjoy music these days. It’s kind of works like frames in an animation. Small bursts of sound are emitted with silence in-between. This creates a perceived constant sound, like an animation is actually a set of stills that is perceived as motion (maybe not a totally accurate analogy, but it will work for now).Analog sound on the other hand (like a cassettee or vinyl record) is created by the constant drag of a needle over surface. If you slow down a record, your music might start to sound like satan, but you may also notice that the signal is still nice and thick. If you tried to slow down a digital track, the spaces in between the sound would become more apparent the perceived constant sound starts to break down quickly.

I read recently that music is actually recorded specifically for the ipodders of the world. Music today sounds much more tinny, high-pitched and thin than the stuff our parents grew up listening to. From The Daily Cardinal;

Apparently music … is now often being recorded, mixed and mastered to sound ideal specifically on earbuds as opposed to being aimed at more conventional sound systems. In a twisted way, innovation seems to be actually reaching for the lowest common denominator these days.

Eventually I had to bastardize my ….ahem….. vision and digitize this file for you to listen to over the internet.

Now some damage control for any audiophiles that come across this post; I don’t claim to be an audio expert, and I may not be correctly describing a lot of the technical details of analog vs. digital. This experiment was just an exercise for a guy who lives, eats, breathes, digital media.

Just a little while ago I made some comments about Chuck Close’s process. Since then I’ve revisited Joshua Davis’s site and downloaded his presentation from 07. For those that don’t know Joshua Davis, he is an artist that takes design elements and uses random math in Flash to position things, generating a thousand new compositions w/ each click of a button.

It was pretty ironic to see that Joshua pokes a fun at Chuck’s “process”. Davis uses Close’s work as a backdrop to some of his code samples. Davis finds kind of an interesting relationship between Close’s process and the his own process which includes a computer “processor”, that takes care of all the grunt work.

More than once I’ve vowed to return to analog means, but eventually I’d like jacobmake to develop a niche. The thing I’m most interested is generative art. Random math, shape and color appeal to me, especially the way Joshua Davis lays it out. In that 2007 presentation (which is basically just the slideshow from his actual presentation) he draws a line between himself and more “pure” programmatic generative artists like Casey Raes and the Processing gang.

I like the automation of Joshua Davis’s, but i’m missing the hands-on human element. Maybe i could find a mix, re-drawing computer generated art? Putting it through a human process? It would be a much slower version of how a computer can draw something, it would retain the human imperfections that live in Close’s work. Sounds like a pretty crack-head process I know.

Cate’s grandma (stick w/ me here) dropped by yesterday to see the baby. She is always peddling some kind of garage sale find that we usually turn down or accept b/c we don’t want to hurt her feelings. Finally a payoff!!! As I walked to the back of her caddy, to inspect her latest find I was thrilled to find a analog 4 track recorder. My buddy Alex introduced me to one of these and he has made some sweet sweet music w/ it.

Right now, I posses a guitar, piano and keyboard. Some other things I may need to pickup before fiddling w/ this thing;

• some kind of percussive instrument, bongo, tambo, etc.
• A metal or glass slide for slide guitar
• harmonica
• mic and possibly a punch-in pedal.

should be interesting.

Widgetry – luscious little morsels of UI and development.

I’ve starting thinking about developing my first Dashboard Widget. I spent the weekend taking a look at Apples Xcode….whoa. I don’t think I’m ready to jump into all of that COCA action. But after further research a Dashboard Widget seems to be a pretty simple creature. Most seem to simply be JavaScript, HTML, CSS and a PNG or two.

I cracked open a few of my widgets to see how they are communicating with the web. AJAX seems to be the way to go. I think I have the tools to pull together a pretty little widget, now what shall I make? So far two ideas jump out;

• an Urban Dictionary Widget (there is one that currently exists, but it’s functionality is limited)
• a PongPosition rank & score submitter widget (too bad only a couple of us are on mac here at the wood)

Plugging into web services and APIs is some fun stuff. I’ve done some tinkering with google maps before, this would be my first jump into a social media API.