Week 2: Procedure and Repetition
Tuesday, January 12th Overview
Check ins: 3:30-4:20
Technical challenges/ questions from faces assignment.
Check in on readings / assignment time.
Break: 4:20-4:30
Introduction to Computational Repetition: 4:30 -5:10
Computer Grass is Natural Grass: 4:30 -5:10
Computers are, at a very basic level, mechanisms for repetition. They can perform a task multiple times, in the exact same form (nearly), each time. Repetition is intrinsic to computing, but also plays a key role in visual art and design. Artists and designers rely on the repetition of forms, colors, spatial relationships and other forms to introduce rhythm and structure into a piece.
Symmetry: 4:30 -5:10
Symmetry is one intial form of repetition, that is often found in nature, and reproduced in many forms of design and ornament.
Examples:
Ernst Haekel: German Biologist who illustrated microscoping structures of radiolarians
Marjane Bantjes: designer, typographer, writer and illustrator who works with both digital and traditional drawing tools
Joshua Davis: Computational artist and graphic designer. Josh's work combines complex illustrated elements with computational symmetry and repetition.
Laleh Mehran's Entropic Order
Grid: 4:30 -5:10
"A grid system is not just a set of rules to follow... but it's also a set of rules to play off of–to break, even. Given the right grid – the right system of constraints – very good designers can create solutions that are both orderly and unexpected."
-- Khoi Vinh, New York Times, referenced from Rune Madsen's Programming Design Systems.
Grids: repeating structures of form and spacing provide a means to organize a design and partition space. Grids can establish rhythm and create a sense of flow, however they can also be shifted, manipulated, and broken to create interest, focus, and surprise.
Examples:
Bridget Riley: English Painter who is one of the most prominent creators of OpArt. Riley's paintings use repetition and contrast to create subtle effects on the eyes of the viewer [Reas et al.]
Vera Molnar: Hungarian artist who created intricate plotter-based artwork. One of the first artists to use a plotter.
John Maeda- Morisawa 10: Series of posters created through postscript with repeating and transforming typography [Referenced from Zach Lieberman's Recreating the Past Course at SFPC].
Donald Judd: American artist who focused on the constructed object, as well as the space created by it. Many of his works can be found in Marfa, Texas at the Chinati Foundation (see also, the Donald Judd Foundation).
Agnes Martin: Born in Canada, Martin was an abstract/minimalist artist known for her geometric work incorporating grids and systemic repetition.
Kasimir Malevich: Founder of Suprematism, an art movement whose "grammar" consists of the most fundamental geometric forms (specifically the square and the circle). See also: Wassily Kandinsky and Victor Vasarely.
Piet Mondrian: Dutch abstract artist who was known for avoiding references to the real world and using only primary colors (red, yellow, blue), primary values (black, grey, white), and primary directions (horizontal and vertical).
10PRINT references Composition with Red, Blue, Black, Yellow, and Gray (1921) on page 79.
Theo Van Doesburg: Dutch artist, founder and leader of De Stijl (aka Neoplasticism, a Dutch art movement).
10PRINT references Counter-Composition VI (1925) on page 79.
Paul Klee: Bauhaus professor, whose work in the 1920s resembled Truchet’s and Doüat’s experiments. His 1925 book Pedagogical Sketchbook presents his thoughts on quantitative structure, rhythm, repetition, and variation.
10PRINT references his work Variations (Progressive Motif) from 1921 on page 79.
Sol LeWitt: American artist who created wall drawings to be executed from a set of written rules/instructions. Generally, when museums or consumers bought his work, the work at hand was the set of instructions itself (oftentimes, LeWitt himself would not execute the drawings).
See this video of the execution of LeWitt's Wall Drawing #29.
Computational Repetition in Processing: 4:30 -5:10
Loops and Transformation Matrices:
Shape Import:
Assignment
Reading
Complete a reading reflection in the slide deck by Wednesday, 6pm