2004W


ARTS 122 Advanced Projects in Interactive Media (4 units)
Instructor: George Legrady

Tues-Thurs 10:00-12:50 pm, E-studio
    "Simple processes can lead to complex results"

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE AESTHETICS OF ALGORITHMIC VISUALIZATION
An undergraduate art course focused on the aesthetics of algorithmic visualization. Students will be given an overview of designing still and time-based visualizations through writing basic computer scripts and resulting in large scale prints or digital video.
     
T 1.6 Course Introduction
   

Technological Abstraction, Computational Aesthetics
What is an algorithm? [Budgett] [Remko Scha]
Examples (Pickover, thomas’s website)
Digital Image basics: rgb, bit size, loc, sampling, DPI
Process, rule-based approach, weaving an image (baskets, rugs, Islamic)
Output: screen based, prints, time-based (dynamic, rendered)
Th 1.8
  

Introduction to creating an algorithmic image

Readings


Project

Cohen: "What is an image?"
"Geometric form as fundamental Principle, Ornamental Design"

Collecting rule based examples

T 1.13 Art References: Overview of 1960's + Relevant Movements
Conceptual models
Real-time Systems
Chance Operations
Painting, Drawing
Early Computer Art
1970's Exhibitions
Collaborative Art & Science
  

Minimalism, Conceptualism Lewitt, Bochner
Haacke, Oppenheim, Huebler
Cage, Arp, Fluxus
Riley,[2], Denes, Morellet, etc.
Noll, Nake, Molnar, etc.
Information, Software, Art by Telephone, Machine Art, etc.
E.A.T (Kluver, etc.), Buckminster Fuller

Th 1.15

Repeat Function, Randomness, Noise, lists (arrays)

Readings

Project

Shanken: "Jack Burnham's Concept of "Software" as a metaphor for art"

Basic code
T 1.20  

Trigonometric Functions (Sine, Cosine, pi(), etc), Noise & Signal
Visually Mapping and Using Functions
Th 1.22
   Trigonometric Lab Exercises

Readings

Project

Weaver, Shannon, Information Theory

Programming trig function studies
T 1.27 Color: LookupTables (variations on how to create)
Review Information Theory basics
Th 1.29
   Frequency Modulation
Project Frequency Modulation
T 2.3
 Algorithms in Design: WTC Memorial, Sawad Brooks, etc.
Virtual Architecture: Chu, Novak, Lynn, Reiser & Umemoto, etc.
Th 2.5
Lecture
   Individual Research Project reviews
Kathy Rae Huffman, Cornerhouse, Manchester UK
Project Individual Research Project
T 2.10 Review of Algorithms, Animating Still Images
Joel Sherman Demo of MStudio printing
Th 2.12

Lecture
  Algorithmic Images: Best Hits
Uli Schmidts introduction to the "Processing" environment
Marcos Novak: “An Experiment in Computational Composition” with a focus on the relation between entropy and genetic algorithmics"
Readings Wolfram, NKS, Chapter 2
T 2.17   Rule Based Cellular Automata: Wolfram, Krawczyk
Time-Based Processes, Noise
Th 2.19
Lecture
  Research & Individual Meetings
Casey Reas, Digital Media Design, UCLA
Readings Pickover: "Image Processing of the Schroud of Turin"
T 2.24 Noise, Randomness& Aesthetics
Th 2.26
  

Research Projects

Algorithmic Visualization, Jack Chu
Effects of Randomness on Noise, E.Anthony Giron
Fibonacci, Lindsay Orndorff
Random Walk, Noboru Matsuo
Automata, Chelsea Christiani
Halftone Vehicles, Erland Sanborn
Roman Verostko, Margaret Martinez
Flocking Algorithms, Steven Hans
Artifical Intelligence, Eric Keshishian
Joe R
Noise, James Shiau
Lecture Jean-Pierre Hébert, Visiting artist-in residence at the Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics, UCSB
T 3.2 Signal Processing in Image & Sound
Th 3.4 Lab and Individual Meetings
T 3.9 Final Project Presentation
Th 3.11 Final Project Presentation
Documentation Reports Due
  References
Books
   Alberro, A, Conceptual Art
Burnham, J, Great western Salt works
Flake, G, The Computational beauty of Nature
Meyer, J Minimalism
Paul, C, Digital Art, Thames Hudson
Pickover, Clifford, Computers, Pattern, Chaos, and beauty, Dover
Rickey, G Constructivism
Wolfram, S, A New Kind of Science