Author: shrugbread

shrugbread- LoopReading

Video link

I found particularly interesting in this specific moment she talks about how in the presence of repeated exposure to music, people will often try to focus on a different part of the song to pay attention to. This is a mechanism that helps us stay engaged with the same material, and is also an indicator of our internal craving for stimulus as well as things that are safe and consistent. This small instance of understanding human tendencies and psychology has a massive payoff in looping/repeating media.

shrugbread-Wallpaper

My Code: https://editor.p5js.org/shrugbread/sketches/XnztQHwKK

 

 

The code that I used to make this wallpaper was modified from Okazz_ on OpenProcessing. Below is an image of the original work.

Okazz_ sketch: https://www.openprocessing.org/sketch/825210

The code that governs the lines and dots of the wallpaper is very simple but requires that the programmer know how noise functions work, as well as how to creatively apply what the noise function will give you.

 

Above is the code that controls my lines. By fiddling with the numbers I figured out that the parameters within noise() are dictating the intensity, shape, and detail and of the Perlin noise. Said noise function is then multiplied and blown up now that it has been properly defined and detailed for it to be visually variable. Noise () is then multiplied by the int() command forcing whatever value that the noise function produces to round to the nearest integer. The lines that start with x+= and y+= then use the result of the angle variable to determine the direction that the line will continue going.  The specifics of the math still escape me after multiple explanations but after a few hours of playing with the numbers, I was able to get the lines to travel in parallel squares or bunch up at their original gridpoints, as well as many other fun tricks.
The noiseLine function was not the only change I made to the original Okazz_ sketch.  Instead of multicolored squares as my gridpoints, I used arcs with randomized starting angles. I also edited the color range used, and have a commented-out grayscale array for the pallette. I spent very long trying to make this as interesting-looking as possible and ended up with some even crazier results, but I found this variation to be the most appealing.

shrugbread-Reading 03

I had some new insight after reading  “Color Arrangement in Generative Art”  towards the end of the reading.  Part of Hobb’s message aside from the warning to new artists about leaning too hard on other artists color choices is to not be afraid of random variation in color so long as it makes sense contextually. He has multiple pieces that have groups of cool/warm, bright/dark, like/contrasting colors right next to each other to provide a specific cohesiveness. This coupled with the use of gradients can make for color choices that almost form themselves and don’t require the artist to sit there diligently with the eye dropper too looking out for the best hue.

 

I struggled a lot with this assignment. I just couldn’t settle on a design that I could pull off within the time constraints. The above iteration maps each name to a specific message while the heart in the background moves in a circle while the below valentines completely randomize the color of the heart and text as well as the arrangement of names and messages.

shrugbread- Reading02

The 10,000 bowls of oatmeal problem is particularly interesting because it is a problem that resides almost completely in the mind of the viewer, and not a truly tangible problem that the computer recognizes. The problem is essentially of relative minuteness in variation when generating something using code. You can create a generator that spits out every variation of a specific ruleset. These variations can be incredibly minute such as a single leaf on a tree being missing, or a single oat in a bowl of oatmeal having a different orientation than it’s other variants. This variation is completely true in the eyes of the computer, but has a lack of significance in the eyes of the viewer.  The problem then becomes how to make the permutations both complete and significant enough for them to be interesting.  It may not even be a problem for some types of projects, such as simulation, where every slight variance can provide a different result when some type of time changing variable is added, but is particularly unhelpful when trying to create games as sometimes the variations are too slight to have it worth implementing.  The problem then becomes how to make visual significance in every variation, such as paring down your parameters to certain key variables.