aesthetics design class - lecture 3

This is more re-use some of the quotes from a undergraduate class that taught by Geoff Cox (my supervisor). The topic is generative art.

- Digital poem and Dadaist poem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBS-9Tm7EmQ
> from the instruction of making a dadaist poem, there is a line "shake it gently"-> relate to the random function in software programming

- "Philip Galanter describes generative art as "any art practice where the artist uses a system, such as a set of natural language rules, a computer program, a machine, or other procedural invention, which is set into motion with some degree of autonomy contributing to, or resulting in, a completed work of art""  (see ref: http://www.hyperrhiz.net/hyperrhiz06/essays/the-aesthetics-of-generative-literature-lessons-from-a-digital-writing-workshop.html)

- The notion to support generative art as the combination of human and nonhuman: "Generative art is a term given to work usually (although not exclusively) automated by the use of a machine or computer, or by using mathematic or pragmatic instructions to define the rules by which the artwork is executed. After the initial parameters have been set by an artist / programmer the process of production is unsupervised, and, as such, 'self-organising' and 'time-based'. Work literally 'grows' autonomously, according to the innate properties of the chosen technology or the particular circumstances in which the instructions are carried out. The outcome of this process of 'complexity' is thus unpredictable, and could be described as being integral to the 'nature' of that technology, or situation, rather than simply the product of individual human agency or authorship. " / "Generator serves to throw emphasis on processes, unfolding in real-time, rather than end products or the dead-end commodity form of art. " (see ref: http://generative.net/generator/) 

-Sol Lewitt: “The idea becomes the machine that makes the art”

DNA and computational generativity

coding sequences and non coding sequences
Rules
Software / data process
Translating
Transcription
self replication
enzyme based
begin with one cell,
magnificent machine -> human body

see the programming of life here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00vBqYDBW5s

Recursive

About recursion:

"What is recursion? Sometimes a problem is too difficult or too complex to solve because it is too big. If the problem can be broken down into smaller versions of itself, we may be able to find a way to solve one of these smaller versions and then be able to build up to a solution to the entire problem.

This is the idea behind recursion; recursive algorithms break down a problem into smaller pieces which you either already know the answer to, or can solve by applying the same algorithm to each piece, and then combining the results.
 
Stated more concisely, a recursive definition is defined in terms of itself. Recursion is a computer programming technique involving the use of a procedure, subroutine, function, or algorithm that calls itself in a step having a termination condition so that successive repetitions are processed up to the critical step where the condition is met at which time the rest of each repetition is processed from the last one called to the first."

Ref: http://www.sparknotes.com/cs/recursion/whatisrecursion/section1.rhtml

Images example:

 

Video introduction:

)
Images ref:
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/32873/Recursion-made-simple
http://memristors.memristics.com/MorphoProgramming/Morphogrammatic%20Programming.html

Function and meaning

In the book "What Things Do", the author, Verbeek, talks about mediation of technology, in particular the function and sign of technology.

For example: "a speed bump not only functions to slow down traffic, it mediates the relation of users of the road and the space around it, signifying that space as a pedestrian terrain through making it safe."

As such, function and sign can be analyzed separately. This 'sign' is actually corresponding to Latour's Actor Network theory of 'delegation'. What has been inscribed in the technology? What are the meaning or desire?

I am thinking about in the art world, the artifact, such as JODI's work GeoGoo, other than visually presented as performing objects, what has been inscribed in the work if we think about the use of icons and maps in the work, there is a critical element inside the work. Can we describe this as a sign or as latour's term "delegation" ? Technology is used as a way to critique the network.  This strategy is commonly used in network art, for example Benjamin's artwork Facebook dematricator. 

To move the notion of signs to generativity/liveness, how might be understand liveness through signs? What the code does is not just performing an action from its functional perspective, but more performing a critique of culture/technology or translating a specific meaning through the artwork performance. This requires us to look at the materials, how the artists use the materials for example likes/google map icons etc to delegate their desire and inscribe into the artwork. In that sense, we have to look into the materials of an artwork. What it means by performing live? Why is it so important to perform as live? What is the aesthetics of liveness when we think from the materials aspect of an artwork?

Perhaps it demonstrates the dynamics and unpredictability of artwork/network.

From Bucher (2012), she mentions her methodological approach towards her thesis. "I adopt the view that technical objects and elements afford meanings and possibilities for action, based on how they work and function. My methods are therefore influenced by approaches to media that explicate the need to read and interpret technology based on its materiality and procedurality." (p.73)

Can I also use the similar approach to understand why it has to be performed as live? To relate to generativity, shall we look at the rules that the author defines?

The aesthetics of liveness

Ref: http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/daniel.and.kate/webcams.html (by Daniel Palmer 2000)

The introduction paragraph of Palmer describes the situation of liveness, the setup of liveness.

The idea is simple: a video camera takes pictures at set intervals, the images are digitally compressed and instantly uploaded to an Internet server, where they become immediately available to anyone surfing the World Wide Web.Set up by a minority of dedicated netizens, the still images are usually transmitted around the clock, delayed only by the time it takes them to unveil on the screen. "

The notion of liveness that is described here is not related to audience, but more about reality and real time technology. The actual transmission of data that is happened around in the city. (This relates to social/society as all the artworks represented in the web were about real situation) - see quote here " the visible world is periodically disclosed" That possibly I call the representation of the society as reality. However, reality can be also thought of nonhumans, computation is constantly reacting, encoding, decoding and transmitting the data.

The reality is constantly shifting as the (networked) environment is never stable.

-> side note: may be the liveness that I am looking has a subtle layer of surveillance notion, 'monitoring' the network happening at some sense. See Palmer quote here "Watching 'real' people live out their lives in public is increasingly sparking our televisual imaginations"

" there's often only the very faint sense that something might happen"-> the possibility.. or unpredictability? This resonates with earlier liveness literature review that I have done. 

Link with mediation:  "Webcams aren't a medium but a hybrid, a remediation of video by the metamedium of the networked computer "

Possible venue for artwork presentation

1/ Data Salon series at CA : http://easternbloc.ca/calls.php [Apr or Jun 2014]
2/ I Do Art Lab: https://www.facebook.com/idoartlab [Before Aug, ideally in Jun 2014] > but will be in the form of visual objects.
3/ Writing Machine Collective HK: https://www.facebook.com/events/1396547637292652/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular [Deadline: 23 May; exhibition: Oct 2014]

generative aesthetics in relation to computation

Ref: http://www.digicult.it/digimag/issue-050/aesthetics-and-computation-the-origins-of-generative-art/

John F. Simon Jr – Every_Icon is a very famous work to describe generative aesthetics. 
"Simon searches for aesthetic aims systematically and in real-time computation" 

The article mentions artist Lisa Jevbratt, and her works were often driven by Internet data.

Next is to read this: Christiane Paul wrote about database, visualization and data mapping (2003) >> refer to this: Christiane Paul, Digital Art (London: Thames and Hudson, 2003)