Realidades

Realidades randomly generates - each time you click - a generative image made up of a series of lines and shapes that fill, rotate and/or leave and enter the canvas. With the aim of replicating the waves and shapes seen in works such as Ben Laposky’s Oscillon 40 and 41, or the sense of familiarity to a strange nature of Grace Hertlein’s Womb of Water, but in a more dynamic way, if possible.

Technical, aesthetic and conceptual development

Getting to the final result was a work of trial, error and experimentation. With a space of 512 pixels wide and high where, at first, only a representation of a mouse is seen that illuminates its two buttons. While this image is displayed, a function calculates a series of random numbers that directly intervene with its generation. These determine how many figures will make up the final image and the angle of rotation of certain movements that they will make. It will also depend on the click you press on what type of drawing will appear on the screen, which could be a set of waves that slowly form while turning on and off or what looks like a celestial body that is generated and radiates a strange energy. Once clicked, the program takes the generated numbers and applies them to create the drawing on the screen. The frames per second change from 60 to 24 and figure by figure begins to be drawn, counting the number of frames affecting the shape of the waves, until an image appears and the user stops clicking. At which point the mouse is shown again and starts generating numbers again.

When looking for inspiration, examine works from the fathers of computer-generated art, specifically Ben Laposky’s “Oscillons” series. These show still photographs of different combinations of ripples formed through the manipulation of electromagnetic waves with an oscilloscope, resulting in a wide catalog of expressions. The no40 and no41 attracted me more because of the impression of dynamism and movement they presented in a single simple shape compared to the rest of their series. On the other hand, Grace Hertlein’s work on natural settings and landscapes convey calm and stillness. In Womb of Water you can see a grove of trees in the front, lines that cross it horizontally and concentrate in the background to form a horizon next to a possible star or planet. I aspired to transfer this feeling of serenity to the canvas in the form of rings that expand outward from a celestial body.

While writing the code I remembered the text The Conquest of Ubiquity, and how accurate its prediction of the reproduction and transmission of current art was. “But the astonishing growth of our means, the flexibility and precision that they achieve, and the ideas and customs that they introduce, guarantee us close and very profound changes in the old industry…” (Valéry, 1928, p. 131). Rereading this passage allowed me to make the decision to include the circumferences one above the other that expand over the celestial body and the rays that can be seen to a lesser extent below them.

When I made the decision to insert an element of randomness into the composition, I had to do so considering a certain range. The extent of this range would be directly proportional to the number of possibilities that could be represented. However, having such a broad set of probabilities meant, in my eyes, that many were alike. I then began a selective process where large amounts of numbers would be reduced to one and only those that I found interesting would remain. This reminded me of how Guattari also knew how to foresee the problems of international thought, the media and science, and how these adhere us to a reassuring fog that allows us to ignore certain issues. “…all major contemporary upheavals, whether they are negative or positive in scope, are currently judged by the standard of information sifted by the media industry…” (Guattari, 1992, p. 120).