Generative Arts & Literature: an overview SM2220 CIL core: a concept-driven studio class Dr. Linda Lai Spring 2010 Week 1-2

Generative Arts & Literature:an overview

SM2220CIL core: a concept-driven studio class

Dr. Linda LaiSpring 2010

Week 1-2

This course has FOUR main purposes:

1. to provide an overview and historical survey of generative art and literature in order to develop the concept of generative systems and their relevance to new media creative context

2. to conduct an in-depth case study on the Potential Literature of the Oulipo group and its expanded practices

3. to examine the definitions and variety of “rules” and “rule-making”

4. to develop problem solving skills for generative art via code-writing

I.

Beyond conceptual art and representation

Problem solving => art-making

One and Three Chairs

Joseph Kosuth / 1965

Problem solving => art-making

One and Five Chairs

- - - - - - - - - - / 2010

One and Five Clocks (Kosuth, 1965)

Re-creating Mondrian

Analysis of a painting by Piet Mondrian

What questions we often ask about a painting do not apply to this situation?

What new, production questions are relevant?

Re-creating Mondrian

Imagine we are asking someone to make an exact copy of the above painting by telling the person exactly what to do step by step ...

What steps would you lay down for someone to reproduce many different Mondrian-like paintings?

Collective improvisation

Turning a painting into a generator...

Exploring the generative potentials of a painting via the use of rules...

The rule:

Ask questions about this painting,

apply divergent thinking,

exhaust all the possible questions you can think of...

II.

Rules

Rules

Rules delimit (constrain) AND enable...

Rules are used to organize parts (units into a whole...

*unpredictable outcome

*Creativity has to do with inventing and reinventing rules in a playful spirit

Rules

Simple rules can generate many different images.

Generative Art [G.A.] often depends on the power of REPETITION.

GA often has a strong sense of order, similar to the growth of an organism.

Analysis of Mondrian’s paintings

• Rules

• Constraints

• Freedom/inventiveness within limit

• Process / steps / algorithms

• Surprises, amazement

• Simple rule/simple unit complexity

Rules? Types of rules?

• Rules are delimiting/restricting as well as enabling/opening up

• Types of “rules”…rules

-that govern the forward movement of the action (keeps the work going)

-that govern individual actions

-that explores the step-between-step design

-Rules about rules, e.g. cyclic repetition, reversal, distribution, recursion, iteration

III.

What is Generative Art?

Generative Art

Rule-drivenness…

ChanceAutomatismAlgorithmsSeries

Trans-genre

Generative Art

Self multiplication

Self organization

Single unit complex system

Simplicity complexity

Rule applicationCombinatorial / permutation / algorithm / emergence

Generative Art

Concern for…

New methods of composition…

Methods that allow a work to grow in scope and abundance

Generative Art: an initial case for review

Gego (German born female artist residing in Venezuela)

Lines …planes …objects …environment

Triangles… Squares… Spheres

Triangles into netsTriangles forming circular planesTriangles into cylinders and tubular structuresTriangles forming spheresSquares into sheetsSquares into netsSquare as frames…


Gego (German born female artist residing in Venezuela)

Anti-sculpture…

“I still dislike the word ‘sculpture’. They are not sculptures.” (referring to her works)

Dictionary definitions, she pointed out, describe sculpture as any assembled objects.

She felt such a definition does not sufficiently cover her works – mainly jointed pieces and structures.

Her intention was not only form and volume, but transparent structure.

***She emphasizes she never made sketches of her work…


Bernd & Hilla Becher

Generative thinking in field photography

Four decades:

photographing and classifying the industrial structures that are even now vanishing from the modern landscape...


Generative Art performs the idea as process.



Rules as constraint produce a somewhat automatic process.

Rules are used to ensure the next possible step forward.

GA begs the question of what’s possible & what is virtual





The intricacies of a GA work often lie in the rational relation between each two steps + the leaps-and-bounds differences at the end of a sequence of operations.

Generative Art?

To generate = to produce, to bring into existence, to bring forward, to present to view or notice…

Generative = capable of producing

Generative procedural, serialist

Generative Visual Arts

TWO kinds of generative systems in 20th-C art history (Diane Kirkpatrick):

(1) Close generative systems:

[e.g. conceptual art]

in each work a closed analytic structure is set up which becomes a generator for exploration

Generative Visual Arts

TWO kinds of generative systems in 20th-C art history (Diane Kirkpatrick):

(2) Organic generative systems:

A work begins with creating one word or idea and uses that to generate the next, and the next and so on…(creating generators)

a poem by 鄭愁於

• 我打江南走過• 那等在季節裏的容顏如蓮花的開落• 東風不來，三月的柳絮不飛• 你底心如小小寂寞的城• 恰若青石的街道向晚• 足音不響，三月的春帷不揭• 你底是小小的窗扉緊掩• 我達達的馬蹄是美麗的錯誤• 我不是歸人，是個過客。

a poem by 鄭愁於 digitized by Bryan Chung• 我打江南走過• 那等在季節裏的容顏如蓮花的開落• 東風不來，三月的柳絮不飛• 你底心如小小寂寞的城• 恰若青石的街道向晚• 足音不響，三月的春帷不揭• 你底是小小的窗扉緊掩• 我達達的馬蹄是美麗的錯誤• 我不是歸人，是個過客。

http://www.bryanchung.net/?p=247




Generative Visual Arts: work examples

Josef Albers:(1) “Homage to Square” series (1950s)

Frank Stella:(2) “Protractor Series” (93 paintings based on 31 canvas formats each with 3 compositional types)

Sol LeWitt:(3) “Squares with Corners Torn off” (1975) X(4) “Modular Open Cube”


Dorothea Rockburne:

(5) “Set” (1970) – inspiration from Mathematics

(6) “Radiant and Fields” (1971) – concept of units becoming more complex X

(7) “Drawing That Makes Itself” (1973) X

Jennifer Bartlett:

(8) “Rhapsody” (1975-76)


Doug Huebler:

(9) “Duration Piece No. 6” (NY, 4/1969) – photo series X

(10) “Location Piece No. 6” (1970) X

(11) “Duration Piece No. 7”

(12) “Location Pieces No. 7”


Sonia Sheridan:

(13) mono-prints series based on one image (1963-64)

(14) “Unwind the Wheel of Time” (1979) – eight drawings X

TAKE-HOME ASSIGNMENT

• Generative drawings:

• Make 5 drawings, each containing:– a circle

– a stick-man– a tree

– a square– Record the rules you've used and

developed

IV.

Process, procedures, sequence, series

Sequence and series

SequenceOrder of arrangement: what comes become and what

comes after…

SeriesThe possible formations of elements based on rules of

selection and combination… [refer to game we played in class]

Algorithms: procedures in computing

Algorithm is the systematic procedures that computer science adopts to final correct solution to complex problems.

Algorithm is a procedure for solving a problem in terms of:

1) the actions to execute

2) the order in which these actions execute

Algorithms: actions in order

“rise-and-shine algorithm”[source: H.M. Deitel & P.J. Deitel (2005), C++: How to Program 5th edition, p. 121]

(1) Get out of bed

(2) Take off pajamas

(3) Take a shower

(4) Get dressed

(5) Eat breakfast

(6) Drive to workConsider other sequencing possibilities and the qualitative change in

narrative meaning, e.g.:

(1) – (2) – (4) – (3) – (5) – (6)

An illustration of Recursion

Recursion is one class of algorithms

Recursion: the process of solving a large problem by reducing it to one or more sub-problems which are:

(1) Identical in structure to the original problems; and

(2) Simpler to solve

An illustration of Recursion

How to collect $1000 in a fundraising event in which coupons are printed at $1 per piece:

One way to do it is to find one person who can donate the total amount…

[Source: Eric S. Roberts (1986), Thinking Recursively, pp. 1-4]

How to collect $1000

One way to do it is to use an iterative solution:

[Pascal-like language]

PROCEDURE COLLECTION

1000;

BEGIN FOR 1 := 1 TO

1000 DO

Collect one dollar from

person I

END;

[Actionscript]

For (i=1; i<=1000; i+

+)

operation performed

Initial value

condition (the loop

will continue to execute until

the condition is false)

How to collect $1000: a recursive solution

Principle:

to break down the problem into identical, sub-problems that are simple to solve

Enlist 10 people, each in charge of raising $100.

Each person asked 10 volunteers who will raise $10 each.

Each volunteer will find 10 others who agree to raise $1.

How to collect $1000: a recursive solution

The use of recursion here is a “divide-and-conquer” method.

The original problem divides to form several simpler sub-problems, which branch into a set of simpler ones…until the simple cases [the simplest case(s), base case(s)]

How to collect $1000: recursive solution

[Pascal-like language]

PROCEDURE COLLECTION

(N);

BEGIN

IF N is $1 THEN

Contribute the

dollar directly

ELSE

BEGIN

Find 10 people;

Have each collect

N/10 dollars;

Return the money

to your superior

END

END;

[Actionscript]

??????

More illustrations on the use of Recursion

Mondrian-like computer art

1907-1914: Cubism (a modern art movement) flourished in Paris

[nature should be represented in terms of its primitive geometrical components, e.g. cylinders, cones, spheres

etc.]The Cubist community was dissolved at the outbreak of

WWI ideas influenced and shaped the development of abstract art, e.g. works of Piet Mondrian, characterized by rigid patterning of vertical and horizontal lines.

Iteration? Recursion?

There’s a Hole in the Bucket

There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza

There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, a hole

Then fix it, dear Charlie, dear Charlie

Then fix it, dear Charlie, dear Charlie, fix it

With what shall I fix it, dear Liza, dear Liza

With a straw, dear Charlie, dear Charlie

But the straw is too long, dear Liza, dear Liza

Then cut it, dear Charlie, dear Charlie

With what shall I cut it, dear Liza, dear Liza

With a knife, dear Charlie, dear Charlie

Iteration? Recursion?

There’s a Hole in the Bucket (cont’d)

But the knife is too dull, dear Liza, dear LizaThen sharpen it, dear Charlie, dear Charlie

With what shall I sharpen it, dear Liza, dear LizaWith a stone, dear Charlie, dear Charlie

But the stone is too dry, dear Liza, dear LizaThen wet it, dear Charlie, dear Charlie

With what shall I wet it, dear Liza, dear LizaWith water, dear Charlie, dear Charlie

But how shall I fetch it, dear Liza, dear LizaIn a bucket, dear Charlie, dear Charlie

There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza,There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, a hole

V.From Generative Art to Generative Systems:

visual arts, literature & (computer-)automated art







GA begs the question of what’s possible & what is virtual





The intricacies of a GA work often lie in the rational relation between each two steps + the leaps-and-bounds differences at the end of a sequence of operations.

Generative Art?

To generate = to produce, to bring into existence, to bring forward, to present to view or notice…

Generative = capable of producing

Generative procedural, serialist

Generative Systems?

…a system capable of functioning with generative forces…

…a system that imposes a structure on something that is very lively, viable and fluid…

Generators

…a unit (part) of the system that is capable of generating (producing) more units…

Generators

What does it mean to say that something is (serves the functions of) a generator?

e.g.:when is an apple just an apple?

when is an apple a generator?

Generators

A generator can be thought of as a unit capable of producing…

Anything can become a generator when…

*it is turned into a principle for more productive activities…

*it is studied for its ability to push forward the production of the next possible members…

Generators

Generators can be…A key word

An objectA name

A graphic element (point, line, shape etc.)A fragment of a story

A narrativeA dramatic structure

…….

Generators

Generators can be…

Visual…Aural…

Verbal…Structural…

…

More principles of generation (generative operation)

Generation at the formal level

Generation at the structural level

Generative Literature:

“Process poem” by A. Leandro from Ponto-Ovum 10

Discussion…

[works]

Bernd and Hilla Becher (Germany) photo series – topologies, repetitive architectural permutations in photo sequence / formal generative system

Lew Thomas (San Francisco, US)

photo series – collage compilation, photo sequence / structural generative

system http://www.lewthomas.com/index.htm

http://www.lewthomas.com/index.htm


More principles…

Self-generation

Discussion…

[works]

Sol LeWitt

Betty Collings: Topological “model”

-a process in which the artist uses topological geometry to transform a minimal organic shape into multiple, biomorphic, inflatable forms; combining and juxtaposing forms to produce sets and subsets




THREE phases of procedural evolvement towards a complex system

[1st phase:]

Design of structuring device:

rules +procedures

[2nd phase:]

Spatial extension + establishment of networks

[3rd phase:]

Genetic code of artificial units

rules + procedures

Rules…

- Based on sources that are outside of the work itself

- Based on factors embedded in the work

rules + procedures

Rules map out procedures…

e.g. Serial methods

Documents

Generative Arts & Literature: an overview SM2220 CIL core: a concept-driven studio class Dr. Linda Lai Spring 2010 Week 1-2